Oct., 

 1912 



1 Sutton, Notes on the Sandringham Flora. 89 



the Asylum. Regarding this part of the northern boundary of 

 the area, it may be mentioned that Mr. F G. A. Barnard, in 

 his recently published " History of Kew," speaking of the 

 south-eastern portion of the borough, says : — " .... on 

 some of this land the native heath used to flourish, along with 

 many another wild-flower, but all have long since vanished." 

 He tells me that the spot more particularly referred to was a 

 paddock at the corner of Barker's-road and Wrixon-street (the 

 continuation of Auburn-road) ; that the same kinds of vegeta- 

 tion used to occur a little further east, on the Hawthorn side of 

 Barker's-road, and extended through to Harcourt-street. In 

 Burke-road south, just below Anderson-street, was a small 

 paddock, now occupied by a violet farm, in which Pterostylis 

 reficxa could be found. The best collecting-ground that he 

 remembers was known as Snowdon's paddock, in Canterbury- 

 road, Camber well, now the site of Hopetoun -avenue and numer- 

 ous villas, where as late as 1887 the singular brown orchid, 

 Caladenia suaveolens, Thelymitras, tea-tree, &c., still existed. 



Although bounds have been set to the formation, this does not 

 mean that in places it did not perhaps exceed them, or that it 

 occupied the whole of the area included by them. The valleys 

 of Gardiner's Creek and its branches were only in part covered 

 by it. It was most likely not existent over by far the greater 

 extent of Hawthorn, nor was it present on the highest parts of 

 the south bank of the Yarra, where the bedrock comes to the 

 surface. Again, only a comparatively smaU portion ot the area 

 now bounded by Fitzroy-street, St. Kilda-road, and the Yarra 

 was ever covered by it. Here most of the land was originally 

 only a few feet above sea-level, and now, apart from Emerald 

 Hih, very little of it has an elevation of more than 10 feet or a 

 little more. Out of this "the Hill" stood up like an island, 

 with lagoons and many swamps surrounding it, and precisely 

 what vegetation originally covered it is diihcult to say. 

 Although recourse has been had to early publications likely to 

 throw any light on its original appearance, and to old in- 

 habitants, very little exact information has been gained. 

 Hoddle's plan has on its site "grassy hills, forest land." Mr. 

 Pritchard tells us in his "Geology of Melbourne" that its 

 composition is similar to that of Batman's and Hotham Hills, 

 across tliu river, and made up of the Older Basalt, capped by 

 sands and gravels of the Miocene or Kalimnan age. He has, no 

 doubt, authority for more definitely stating that eucalypts, 

 sheoaks. wattles, and many other plants existed there. If it 

 had carried the characteristic " Sandringham formation," which 

 is never at any time "emerald," it had hardly have earned the 

 name it once bore, and we must conclude that its forest was 

 very open, composed of the trees mentioned by Mr. Pritchard, 

 and grassed as Hoddle describes it. 



