Jan., 1910.] THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 129 



BIOLOGICAL SURVEY OF WILSON'S PROxMONTORY. 

 Second Report,* by Alfred J. Ewart, D.Sc, Ph.D., F.L.S. 



{Read before the Field Naturalists'' Club of Victoria, I3th Dec, 1909.) 



In continuance of the work begun last year, and in fulfilment of 

 the instructions received from the Hon. G. Graham, Minister for 

 Agriculture, the National Herbarium sent a second expedition to 

 the National Park last October (1909), the members being Mr. 

 J. VV. Audas, of the National Herbarium, Mr. P. R. H. St. John, 

 of the Botanic Gardens, and Dr. Sutton, hon. secretary of the 

 Plant Names and Records Committee. The expedition confined 

 its energies to the east coast of the Promontory, which hitherto 

 has been little explored botanically, and, after a fortnight's work, 

 only a small area remains to be covered. A third visit should 

 practically complete the botanical part of the survey, and enable 

 a handbook to the flora of the Park to be issued as soon as the 

 pressure of official duties permits. 



It is greatly to be regretted that the vermin-proof fence, 

 promised by the Government in response to the representations of 

 the National Park Committee, has not yet been erected across 

 the neck of the peninsula. Rabbits do not as yet appear to have 

 entered the Park, for although Mount Hunter is full of burrows 

 on its south-eastern slopes no rabbit traces were seen, and the 

 burrows are probably formed by some other animal. Should 

 rabbits once enter, the value of the Park as a sanctuary for the 

 native flora will become very small, and its value as a sanctuary 

 for our native animals will be considerably decreased. I desire 

 to urge the practical importance of immediately erecting the 

 vermin-proof fence if the Park is to fulfil the functions for which 

 it was set aside. 



A few details in regard to the plants recorded are worthy of 

 note. The fern, Lindsaya trichomanoides, was previously only 

 known from Tasmania and New South Wales. This is the third 

 species of Victorian plant whose sole locality is in the National 

 Park, and probably as time goes on and the native flora disap- 

 pears from the rest of Victoria the number of such cases will 

 steadily increase. 



The record 331, Tetratkeca ericinum, Sm., in the previous list 

 {Vict. Nat., XXV., p. 148), should have been T. ericijolia, which 

 is now to be given as T. pilosa, Lab. (a broad-leaved form). 

 Mueller placed T. pilosa as a variety of T. ericijolia, although 

 Bentham, vol. i., p. 131, quotes Mueller as doing the opposite — 

 i.e., placing T. ericl/olia as a variety of 2'. pilosa. It seems best 

 to maintain the two species as distinct ones. The type, T. 

 erici/olia, is therefore not as yet recorded from the Park, but a 



* For First Report, with map, see Victorian Naturalist, vol. xxv. , p. 412 

 (January, 1909). 



