124 Kelly, Concerning Acacia Phyllodes. [vli'^kxix 



unless the beautiful feature will assist it to thrive. It is even 

 doubtful if self-protection is the first law of nature ; rather 

 the first law is to attack. Protection is never even suggested to 

 an organism till an attack is made upon it. It does not even 

 resist until it feels the necessity. If, from anything I have 

 written, I seem to imply that individual plants are possessed 

 of volition, I can only say that I adopt the idea, otherwise 

 expressed, that all plants respond to stimuli which, when 

 applied to more advanced forms of creation, are called 

 promptings. 



DiATOMACEOUS Earth IN VICTORIA. — The Victorian Depart- 

 ment of Mines has issued as Bulletin 26 a 16-page report on 

 " The Occurrence of Diatomaceous Earth in Victoria," by Mr. D. 

 J. Mahony, M.Sc, F.G.S., which contains references to about 

 a dozen localities where diatomaceous earth has been found in 

 varying quantities. The most important deposit, and the only 

 one which has been worked to any extent, is that in the 

 neighbourhood of Lillicur, about eight miles west of Talbot, 

 which consists almost entirely of three species. From a 

 microscopist's point of view the most noted was that recorded 

 by the late Dr. Coates, so long ago as i860, from the 

 neighbourhood of the South Yarra railway bridge, in which he 

 recorded some fifty species of diatoms. An almost similar 

 deposit was described a few years ago by Mr. A. E. Kitson, 

 F.G.S. , as occurring near Punt-road, a little lower down the 

 stream. This was revealed by the Yarra improvement works, 

 but was too impure to be of any commercial value. Another 

 deposit, which, however, is not mentioned in the Bulletin, was 

 noted many years ago by the late Dr. T. S. Ralph and Mr. F. 

 Barnard, when some drains were being cut for the purpose of 

 draining the West Melbourne Swamp, but a list of the species 

 found is not at the moment available. Recently a deposit 

 was found at Fairfield when cutting a drain in Yarraford-avenue. 



Victoria's Nuggets. — An attempt has l^een made in " Memoir 

 No. 12 of the Geological Survey of Victoria" to list the gold 

 nuggets found in Victoria since the discovery of gold in 185 1. 

 Twenty ounces is taken as the smallest size of a true nugget, 

 and between that limit and the famous " Welcome Stranger" of 

 2,284 ozs., or nearly il cwt., found at Moliagul in 1869, no less 

 than 1,327 are listed. Doubtless, in the early days the finding 

 of many nuggets, even of large size, was kept secret, so the list 

 cannot be taken as com]:)lete. Victoria has proved the most 

 prolific producer of nuggets in the world's history, and Mr. E. J. 

 Dunn, F.G S., the late director of the Survey, in his j^reface, 

 says there is no reason why the list should not be augmented in 

 course of time. 



