J""^'] AuDAS, The Grampians Revisited. 29 



Everyone has heard of the grass-trees of the Grampians, 

 and all through this area we found Xanthorrhoea anstralis and 

 X. minor in great numbers. They belong to the Liliaceje, and 

 generally flower profusely after bush fires, which circumstance 

 will cause apiarists to quickly vacate the district, as the honey 

 garnered from grass-tree flowers is of dark colour and inferior 

 quality. This ill wind may be said to blow good for the bush 

 bees, which reap a rich harvest, and the decaying trunks 

 befriend them in yet another way by supplying a gummy 

 exudation useful for filling cracks and holes in the hives. 

 Following the track of a bush-fire with great rapidity, we 

 noticed two invaders, Phyllanthus thymoides and Haloragis 

 Meziana, and the progress of flames seemed also to create a 

 condition favourable to the growth of fungi, Lycoperdon ccelatum 

 (one of the puff-balls), which, when broken, sends off a cloud 

 of umber-coloured powder, which is alleged to cause blindness 

 in sheep. Whether this fungus is such an evil-doer has not 

 been proved, but, like the proverbial dog, its bad name will 

 stick. While speaking of fungi I might mention the phosphor- 

 escent fungus, Agaricus (Pleurotus) illuminans, which we found 

 near the decayed Red Gum timber further down. At night 

 these plants show up like lights, and are used by bushmen as 

 signals on the track. The lower flats yield good quantities of 

 fine Red Gum. a timber which is unfortunately becoming scarce, 

 and the higher flats are wooded by Messmate and Stringy-bark, 

 both localities being used by saw-millers, providing a good 

 source of local employment. Another source of income is the 

 cultivation of the Black Wattle, Acacia mollissima, which 

 yields a most profitable return as tanning bark, but the 

 industry is being retarded by the depredations of rabbits. 

 These pests eat up the young plants as soon as they appear 

 above ground, and growers are therefore compelled to enclose 

 their paddocks with wire netting. Most of the sixty-five 

 species of Victorian acacias have but a very short blooming 

 period, and it was interesting, therefore, to make the acquaint- 

 ance of one which flowers throughout the year ; this was A . 

 retinodes, which we observed along the banks of the Fyans 

 Creek. The richness of these flats has been proved by the fine 

 crops they yield of potatoes and maize, and their fame is now 

 enhanced by the knowledge that they are equally suitable for 

 tobacco. The leaf raised on an experimental area of one acre 

 yielded a net profit of £^0, and was pronounced by Mr. Temple 

 Smith to equal the best our State can produce. 



Other trips were taken during my holiday, which, in such 

 delightful surroundings ended far too quickly, but the notes 

 already given must suffice for the present regarding that 

 veritable botanist's paradise — the Victorian Grampians. 



