6o Kelly, Plant Distribution in the Healesville District, [voi'^'xxxi 



side just beyond the cemetery ; but the allied species, Acacia 

 diffusa, flourishes in several places, particularly in patches 

 scattered on the lower clay hills, and openly distributed on 

 the rises between the Chum and Myers Creeks before they 

 junction. Singularly, the only proclaimed acacia, A. armata, 

 is very rare, though hedges of it thrive on the Yarra flats ; there 

 is only one bush near the railway tunnel and a couple together 

 in the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works channel 

 reserve, just where the aqueduct crosses the Long Gully road. 

 The two occurrences are over two miles apart, on practically 

 the same range, on the west side of the area, and both where 

 earthworks have been carried out. 



Of the other acacias, it is noted that A. stricta is found in 

 several patches at about the same height, particularly at the 

 railway tunnel, where it takes duty as a chasmophyte and 

 luxuriates as a secondary rock covering. When with Acacia 

 leprosa it is the dominant partner. Of A. verniciflua there 

 was only one bush seen, in a paddock off the Chum Creek road, 

 near the Board of Works tunnel. This has been destroyed 

 by fire. A specimen of A. retinodes was brought to me from 

 near the Badger Creek State school, and said to be from a 

 solitary plant, which I have not been able to find there, nor 

 any other in the district, and presume that one has been 

 destroyed. A. penninervis grows freely on Blacks' Spur, Mount 

 Juhet, Mount St. Leonard, and from Toolangi down to the 

 Grevillea repens patch, where it is stunted. A. pravissima is 

 said to grow out of the area, beyond the Spur. A. myrti folia 

 does not approach nearer than the Lilydale-Wandin district. 

 A. melanoxylon, Blackwood, flourishes all over the locality as 

 a tall tree on the highest mountains and deep gullies, but 

 smaller on the lower ones. A particularly fine group may be 

 seen near the crossing of the Badger, on the Don road. A. 

 oxycedrus forms a belt from the Graceburn Creek following the 

 pijx; track to the Maroondah Weir, and is also part of the dense 

 undergrowth skirting the Fernshaw road. A. linearis forms 

 the dense scrub on the lesser hillsides and gullies, and is usually 

 predominant. It sends forth plentiful suckers and adventitious 

 shoots, often forming a tangle with Erharta juncea, Comespcrma 

 volnbile, and the dodders. After the most severe fire it springs 

 up green from the roots as quickly and freely as bracken. 

 Acacia verticillata is a part of the general formation, mountain, 

 hill, and gully, but rarely on the flat. Leptospermum lanigerum 

 associates with Kunzea pediinciilaris on the Yarra, and con- 

 tinues to fringe the banks of the Watts and the mountain 

 streams, where it is first associated with the Tree V'iolet, 

 Hyntenanthera Banksii, and grows along with many riverside 

 shrubs and trees, but no Kunzea, which, at the junction of the 



