128 Sutton,^ Sketch of the Keilov Plains Flora. [ voT.' x'xx i i i . 



A SKETCH OF THE KEILOR PLAINS FLORA. 



By C. S. Sutton, M.B., B.S. 



{Continued from page 123.) 



A small sand-plain near Point Cook, continuous with the 

 beach, is tenanted almost exclusively by the Common Bracken, 

 Pteridium aquilimim, which is decidedly rare elsewhere. 



By far the greatest number of halophytes belongs to the 

 mud-loving (" pelophilous ") division, which Warming splits up 

 into those of the sestuarium, salt-meadow, salt-bushland, salt- 

 steppe, and salt -swamp, according to the condition of the 

 ground occupied and the height of the plants. Instances of 

 all these associations appear to be present. It is easy to refer 

 some of the plants to their proper places in them ; but with 

 others growing indifferently in several situations some difficulty 

 is felt. 



In the cestuarium the soil is constantly saturated with salt 

 water, all the plants are able to endure repeated submer- 

 sion, and nearly all have the outstanding feature of succu- 

 lence. Here we can safely place the Salicornias, Suaeda, Atriplex 

 paludosa, Polycnemum pentandnmi, Frankenia Icevis, and perhaps 

 also Samolus repens, Wilsonia rotundifolia, Mesemhryanthemum 

 tegens, and M. australe. 



Salicornia arbuscula, about 2 metres high, in swampy places 

 as near the mouth of the Kororoit Creek, where it is associated 

 with some of the plants just mentioned, and, again, bordering 

 the banks of the Skeleton Water-holes, where it is very ex- 

 clusive, may be said to constitute a salt-bushland, and, being 

 always very dominant, is known as a *' salicornietum." 



In the salt-meadow the ground is drier and the growth closer. 

 The " sahcornietum " in the Kororoit Creek is gradually becoming 

 changed to a salt-meadow. Here we find Cotula australis, C. 

 filifolia, Angianthus Preissianus, Hydrocotyles, Triglochin 

 mucronata, and Capsella elliptica, with Samolus, Frankenia, 

 and the Mesembryanthemums. 



Further from the water, near the salt-flats, is salt-meadow 

 of a different appearance and taller growth, containing such 

 grasses as Poa ccespitosa, Zoysia pungens, Cynodon dactylon, 

 Agrostis Solandri, Sporoholus virginicus, and Scirpus maritimus, 

 Juncus maritimus, with small herbs like Daucus brachiatus, 

 Selliera radicans, and Cotula reptans. Plagianthus spicatus may 

 also be found in such a situation. In the depressions where 

 brackish water, drying up in summer, leaves a white salt-pan, 

 we have instances in miniature of salt-steppe, with Salicornia 

 australis venturing out a little from the edge of the fringing 

 meadow and a sparse growth of Angianthus Preissiamis and 



