Oct.,! SuTTOX, Notes on the Sandringham Flora. q\ 



1012 J ' 



from which my httle brothers and sisters used to gather the 

 manna which fell down from them." The oaks referred to here 

 were obviously the Drooping Sheoak, Casuarina quadrivalvis, 

 and the Black Sheoak, C. snberosa, and the gum the Manna 

 (ium, Eiicalyptits vimiualis. 



The "Plan of North and South Melbourne," surveyed by 

 Robert Hoddle in 1S42, also furnishes some information regard- 

 ing the vegetation of the area. This most interesting document 

 I was privileged to inspect by the kindness of Mr. Saxton, of 

 the Lands Department. On it the south bank of the Yarra 

 right up to the site of Prince's Bridge is shown to be bordered 

 with a dense growth of the Swamp Paper-bark. The belt was 

 of varying thickness, and widest in the swampy bend of the 

 river then or after known as Fisherman's Bend — now Coode 

 Island. Nearly opposite Spencer-street, and outside the Paper- 

 bark, occurred " scrub and trees," and a large area between this 

 and what is now City-road is marked "poor, sandy forest 

 land." The flats between "the Hill" and the river and St. 

 Kilda-road are generally described as " marshy plain, occasion- 

 ally covered with water." Clumps of tea-tree (Paper-bark) are 

 represented as existing about the swampy land along what is 

 now St. Kilda-road. Albert Park Lake was not then one piece 

 of water, but seemingly several swampy water-holes with a 

 bordering of the same Paper-bark. 



To the west of Bay-street, Sandridge (the part described by 

 Mrs. Macdonald), the foreshore is marked as " barren heath, bare 

 of trees," and "honeysuckle." Between the "saltwater shal- 

 low lagoon," which curtailed the rambles of Liardet's children — 

 the mouth of which now exists as a boat harbour — and the " dray 

 track to Melbourne," corresponding to the present Fitzroy- 

 street, the foreshore is marked in places " rushes," with again 

 " barren heath, bare of trees." Swamps are rejiresented back 

 of this, and between these swamps and the others now con- 

 stituting the Albert Park Lake, the interval is set down " sandy 

 forest land, the timber indifferent, consisting of Eucalypti. 

 Casuarina, Mimosa." There is thus sufficient evidence to show 

 that " the heath " extended in a narrow strip almost to the 

 mouth of the Yarra, but the remainder of the area, being wet 

 and saline ground, subject to floods, must certainly have carried 

 mainly plants characteristic of such situations, such as salt- 

 bushes and other salt-loving plants, with the trees mentioned, 

 and perhaps outlying small patches of the heath. 



As can be seen by reference to the map, vestiges of the original 

 vegetation still exist comparatively close to the city — notably, 

 near the Brighton Cemetery, along the Rosstown raihwy. and near 

 Ashburton, in the angle between the outer circle railway and 

 Gardiner's Creek. Here may still be seen, in association with a 



