f"'i' ] AuDAs, An Eusleytide in the Viciorian Pyrenees. 55 



sLietchcd trom tree to tree, generally overrunning the tops, 

 but in many instances descending to the ground and making 

 progress almost impossible. Its small white flowers and minute 

 foliage were scarcely noticeable upon the harsh growing stems. 



The water-race before-mentioned leaves the mountain from 

 a gully a little below the springs, and travels in a winding 

 course of thirty miles to lieaufort. Its progress is much im- 

 peded by growths of fresh-water algae, the Brooklime, 

 Graiiola Peruviana, and debris from other vegetation, and 

 therefore demands constant supervision to keep it clean. 

 Ascending to the westward, I soon entered the main fern gully. 

 Although not boasting a great variety of species, the sides 

 showed some very fine specimens. The tree-fern Dicksonia 

 antardica reared stately heads of fronds, which, interlocking, 

 formed a beautiful shade, affording security and seclusion to 

 the smaller ferns growing by the edge of the rippling stream 

 beneath them. The tender green foliage of Lomar.ia capcnsis 

 made pleasing contrast to the richer tones of L. discolor, while 

 the scaly stalks of Aspidium aculeatum shot up fiercely from 

 a wilderness of Maiden Hair, Adiantum cBthiopicum. Straying 

 gleams of autumn sunlight penetrated even through this tangle 

 of vegetation, lighting up the vivid and tender green of the 

 mosses upon giant fern trunks, such as Cvathophorimi pcnnaiiun, 

 while all the rocks and fallen timber owed their beauty to the 

 growths of Ptychomnion aviciilare, Metcoriitin limbaiiim, and 

 other smaller mosses upon them. In just such humid places 

 we can always expect to find fungi, and 1 collected some of 

 the kidney-like growths of Daldinia conccntrica from the 

 stem of a Black Wattle, Acacia decurrens. Polysticius occi- 

 dentalis made large patches of yellow upon dead stum])s with 

 its clusters of tiny, disc-like growths. The larger forms of P. 

 lilacino-gilvits grew upon decaying wood, hiding their tender 

 lilac lining beneath a sombre coat of brown, while the large 

 shell-shaped s])ecies. Pomes australis. grew upon the Blackwood. 

 The latter would appear to absorb somewhat the nature and 

 colouring of its host, being a beautiful dark brown, and is very 

 slowly consumed by fire. 



About and upon everything the introduced Black])erry. 

 Rubus fructirosus^ grew very robustly, in places forming high 

 kopjes of green, and, being in fruit, the birds were industriously 

 si)reading broadcast the seed. Not long ago these gullies were 

 the haunts of numbers of wild pigs, which lived almost entirely 

 upon the rhizomes of the Bracken Fern. Ptcris auni/iiui, l)ut 

 they have now nearly all disajipeared, having been ]H)isoned 

 by the arsenic in pollard laid to kill rabbits. 



Of the king of Australian timbers — Acacia nuianoxylon. the 

 Blackwood — I was pleased to see a fair quantity growing 

 throughout the gullies, and even on the precijiitous sides right 



