Vict. Nat. 



190 O'DoNOGHUE AND St. John, Aloug the Lerderderg. [^'^peb 



Eucalyptus melliodora, seemed set in a golden carpet of Cape- 

 weed. Along the roadway Leptorrhynchos squamatus, Cotula 

 coronopifolia, and Goodenia pifwiatifida were the most prominent 

 plants. Hereabouts the works of the Darley Fire Brick Co. are 

 situated, and the white pipe-clay beds exposed in the large 

 excavation on the hillside form a conspicuous feature in the 

 landscape. 



Determining to proceed up the right bank of the stream, we 

 quitted the roadway snd entered a paddock in which Crypto- 

 stemma calendtdaceum, Erodium cygnorum, and Hordeum murinmn 

 formed a luxuriant carpet. The ground was comparatively le\el, 

 though with a slight fall riverwards, and evidently had formed 

 portion of an ancient flood plain. The rank growth of Cape- 

 weed, Crane's-bill, and Barley-grass concealed pebbles of various 

 sorts and sizes, against which our toes repeatedly struck, render- 

 ing rapid progress a difficult matter. It was noted that only the 

 immature trees of Eucalyptus melliodora met with hereabouts 

 bore inflorescence. At a point where the river impinges r gainst 

 a steep cliff Zygophyllum Billardieri, and EnchylcBna tomentosa 

 were met with. Up to this point the principal birds seen were 

 the Black-and- White Fantail, Brown Flycatcher, Chat, Pipit, 

 Magpie, Blue Wren, Laughing Jackass, Crow, and Pallid Cuckoo. 

 The river flat on the right bank of the stream hereabouts is 

 narrows and for the most part occupied by lucerne paddocks. 

 On the uncultivated portion Plantago lanceolata and Lolium 

 perenne abound, and extend some distance up the sparsely- 

 timbered slopes of the hills. Along the margin of the stream 

 Eucalyptus globulus flourished, and displayed foliage of uncommon 

 size ; and on the drift sand-beds, between the gums, the flower- 

 ing tree-violet, Hymenanthera Banksii, grew profusely. Beneath 

 its ample covert the ubiquitous " bunny " frisked and sat, and 

 on our near approach vanished into some subterranean retreat. 



On the left bank of the stream at this spot fine sections of 

 glacial till are exposed to view, formed, for the most part, of 

 tough, unstratified clay, interspersed with stones and boulders. 



Passing beneath the drooping branches of several large trees 

 of Acacia decurrens, \ar. mollis, we reached the shingly bed of 

 the stream, and had proceeded some httle distance along its 

 course when the spectacle afforded by a luxuriant specimen of 

 Clematis microphylla caused us to pause. Surrounding the small 

 " home acre " of a humble domicfle, to a\oid which we had 

 descended from the grassy flat to the river bed, was a wire 

 fence, composed of two barbed wires, with the necessary posts. 

 At a particular spot in the fence the clematis had climbed a 

 post, and, extending itself along the wires, hung down in a 

 veritable blanket of inflorescence. 



We had just begun to mo^ e off, when a man's voice from the 



