^'^•] Williamson, Botanical Notes of a Trip to Mildura 



town, serves to transport vehicles and stock. There is another 

 punt between Mildura and Wentworth. Both have the same 

 appliances — wire rope under water, large grooved wheel and 

 hand crank, and boards, like rudders, to be set at an angle to 

 the current ; but I noticed a great difference in the manner oi 

 working the two. At Mildura the man in charge had to work 

 very hard at the crank, whereas at the Wentworth punt the 

 attendant did not touch the crank when in mid-stream. I 

 think it was because in the latter case the angle-boards were 

 set to the best advantage, and the current pushed the punt 

 across. Between the punt and the town is a three-decked wharf 

 made to suit the varying heights of the river, and close to this 

 a sawmill and a pumping-plant — the former cutting up Red 

 Gum logs, and the latter employed in keeping filled a large 

 tank on a high tower, which supplies the town by means of 

 the usual underground pipes. Near these works I gathered, in 

 flower, Mollugo hirta, Hairy Mollugo, Panicum gracile, Slender 

 Panic-grass, Eclipta platyglossa. Yellow Twin-heads, and 

 Euphorbia Drummondii, Flat Spurge, the two last-named being 

 in luxuriant clusters a foot across, close to the water's edge. 



By the track leading to the mills there stands a specimen 

 of Acacia stenophylla, Eumong, a shapely tree 30 feet high, 

 with long drooping phyllodes. A few hundred yards down the 

 river are the swimming baths — a floating enclosure moored to 

 the bank, and provided with dressing rooms and electric light. 

 Close to this splendid institution I was dehghted with the fine 

 show made by Swainsona microphylla, Small-leaved Darling 

 Pea, and Calotis ciinei folia, Wedge-leaved Burr Daisy — the 

 former with its long racemes of purple flowers and fern-like 

 leaves, and the latter with large blue daisy heads. Both were 

 plentiful. Br achy come chrysoglossa, Golden Daisy, grew also 

 on the banks near by. I had found these two composites 

 associated on the Murray near Rutherglen in 1910. In a small 

 lagoon further down was growing the submerged Jussieua 

 diffusa. Clove Strip, not yet in flower, and much of the water 

 was hidden by a carpet of Azolla rubra, Red Azolla. Here, 

 again, were trees of Eumong without flowers or fruit. 



After crossing by the Mildura punt, and bearing a little to 

 the east, a belt of sand-ridge is entered, on which much 

 interesting vegetation appears. The track is of red sand, and 

 where it is sloping it is difficult for bike riding ; but on level 

 stretches the sand is bound by brick-red clay, identical with 

 what pedestrians in the streets of Mildura have, after rain, to 

 scrape off their boots. The red track winding among the trees, 

 bordered with dark green herbage, sprinkled with white daisies 

 and Blennodias, formed a pretty picture. The daisies com- 

 prised Brachycome pachyptera. Hard-head Daisy, and Helip- 



