Vgfi' 1 AvDAfi, An Easleriide m the Victorian Pyrenees. 51 



AN EASTERTIDE IN THE VICTORIAN PYRENEES. 



By J. W. AuDAS, FT^.S., Assistant, National Herbarium, 



Melbourne. 



(Read before the Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria, i^th May, 1912.) 



E.\STERTIDE is not the most favourable period of the year to 

 study our flora in the field, l)ut the bush always exerts a 

 magnetic influence over me, and, having a few days' vacation 

 at that time, I no longer resisted its impelling call, and started 

 for that portion of the Pyrenees surrounding the highest peak, 

 Mt. Cole, 3,347 feet above sea-level. A train journey of just 

 over one hundred miles along the Adelaide line brought me to 

 the little township of Beaiifort, where I made my head- 

 quarters, and from which place the mountain can be seen 

 standing out prominently fourteen miles to the north-west, a 

 good road leading right to the foot of the mountain itself. 



That the district is extremely suitable for fruit-growing is 

 evidenced by the many ])rosperous and healthy orchards, 

 those of Mr. Watkins, of Belle View, and Mr. Richards, nearer 

 the mount, being striking examples of its favourable nature. 

 The orchardists here are still favoured by a complete 

 absence of many pests which follow on the heels of habitation, 

 including the destructive codlin moth, so that spraying is not 

 yet necessary in their orchards, and the sparrow does not vet 

 " peck their best fruit." Other birds, however, were there in 

 great numbers and variety, such as the ubiquitous White-backed 

 Magpie, the lesser-known and inoffensive Grey Magpie, and 

 flocks of the White-winged Chough, Corcorax melanorhamphiis. 

 The large, oval mud nests of the latter bird were numerous on 

 the branches of the Messmates, Eucalyptus obliqua, and I was 

 interested in contrasting their habits of nesting with those of 

 the Mud-Lark, or " Pee-wee," Grallina picata. Although both 

 have mud nests, the former builds secure and sheltered on the 

 leafy branches of the Messmate, while the latter hies himself 

 to the topmost and most exjMised limb of the Swamp (ium. 



In the vicinity of Raglan, the neat-growing, mat-like foliage 

 of the introduced Chamomile, Anthemis nobilis, with its white- 

 rayed florets, formed round patches of deep green against the 

 dry grey of the grass paddocks, and, in more damp and 

 swampy places, its relative, Cotula coronopifoUa. with curious 

 fleshy leaves and disc-like flowers, were equally numerous. 

 These plants are somewhat a jiest, owing to the deleterious 

 effect which they produce, when consumed by cattle, upon 

 the milk and cream. Another noxious weed, the common 

 Horehound, Mamibium vuli^are, flourished exceedingly in what 

 would seem to be very uncongenial soil — the hard, i)eaten 

 ground ol the roadway. On a swamp near the roadside the 



