92 Sutton, Notes on the Sandringham Florn. [vir'xxix 



grove of EiicalypUis viminalis, bracken, Correa speciosa, Leptos- 

 permitm Icevi^atiim, L. scoparium, Bossicsa cinerea, Bursaria, 

 Tetratheca, Styphelia virgata, and others. There are groves of the 

 same eucalypt on the other side of the creek in ]Malvern, but 

 all the under-scrub except the bracken has long since disappeared. 

 Sandringham, so long a favourite locality for our Club excur- 

 sions, will soon be completely denuded of its heath grounds. The 

 only large block now remaining, that north of Bay-road, is at the 

 present moment being cut up for building sites. The belt of 

 Leptospermum along the cliff edge as far as Black Rock is 

 already spoilt by the crowds of picnickers which frequent it in 

 holiday time, and after this year the name of Sandringham must 

 necessarily cease to appear on our programmes. 



Black Rock is also becoming covered with habitations, and 

 the Ebden estate, which it was once hoped might be reserved 

 for the preservation of the native flora, will at an early date be 

 thickly populated. At the present time the largest unspoilt 

 areas available for purposes of botanical study exist between 

 Black Rock, Beaumaris, and Cheltenham, and from there on 

 towards Oakleigh, and south from Clayton and Springvale. 

 Even these must disappear in the near future, for, apart from 

 their desiral)ility as sites for habitations, the soil is eminently 

 suited for market-gardens. 



Just here is perhaps an appropriate place, in view of the 

 inevitable extinction of the liora elsewhere, to express the hope 

 that the two proprietary golf clubs — the Royal Melbourne at 

 Sandringham, and the Metropolitan at Oakleigh — may elect, if 

 they have not already done so, to most scrupulously conserve on 

 their links wherever possible the vegetation already existing. 

 It may even be urged that they plant also only such species 

 native to the formation as do not happen to occur there now. 

 so that the old original flora of the district may be represented 

 as completely as possible. By so doing they would stamp the 

 links with a character not possessed by others and establish 

 natural botanical gardens which could not fail to be attractive 

 to their own members, and which would be of absorbing interest 

 to those botanists who might be privileged to visit them in 

 future years. 



As the eastern limits of the formation are ap})roached it will 

 be noticed that plants which may be described as naturalized 

 aliens from the neighbouring formations begin to appear. The 

 Daviesias, Piiltencsa Gitnnii, Acacia diffusa, Leptospermum 

 lanigeritm, Cassinia arcuata, the gums now added to the list, and 

 the ferns found at the spring south of Oakleigh are certainly 

 not characteristic of the district. The complex low growth met 

 with near the sea, where as many as 25 species can often be 

 reached from one standpoint, is still present on the higher and 



