io6 Wtliamson, Botanical Notes of a Trip to Mildura. [ 



Vict. Nat. 

 Vol. XXX. 



work, and the head teacher and assistant kindly showed me 

 round. About loo children were present. In reply to my 

 inquiry as to places of historic interest, especially in connection 

 with Sturt's trip, I could not get anything definite. Sturt is 

 supposed to have rowed up the Darling to where the bridge 

 is, close to the school-ground. 



I walked about a mile to the junction of the two rivers, and 

 took some photographs, which show only giant Red Gums and 

 a fine stretch of river, which is, below the junction, four or five 

 hundred yards wide. Rambling across the Darhng bridge, I 

 got little of interest except the rare Limosella Curdieana, Broad- 

 leaved Mudwort, growing in water at the edge of a small lagoon. 

 I had previously found it near Mildura, in a clay depression 

 that was drying up. I also made sure of the Desert Glasswort. 

 This is also a rare plant. Baron von Mueller mentions it as 

 occurring in Victoria, " on the Murray, towards its junction 

 with the Darling." 



On our return drive we overtook a waggonette loaded with 

 baskets of cod-fish. It was drawn by three horses, and con- 

 tained a ton of fish, caught, so my driver informed me, 40 miles 

 down the river, on the Victorian side. In the evening I photo- 

 graphed the driver unloading the fish at the Mildura railway 

 station, from which place it was consigned to Melbourne. 



The next morning I visited Merbein, and was shown the 

 pumping plant which supplies the western channels of the 

 settlement. Near the pumi)-house I noticed several fine shrubs 

 of Acacia salicina, Willow Wattle, just coming in bloom. The 

 flower-heads are a rich orange-yellow. On the bank of the 

 river, close to the water, Nicotiana suaveolens, Sweet Tobacco, 

 and the rare Myriocephahts Stuartii, Tall Thickheads, were in 

 bloom, while up near the outlet an acacia, called by the coach- 

 driver " Boree," formed a fine shelter over a bushman's hut. 

 I failed to find anything besides phyllodes by which to deter- 

 mine the species. 



I rode home past the " Lake " school. This school has a 

 good garden and agricultural plots, so, being interested, I took 

 the liberty of trespassing to inspect them. When I had done 

 so, and was preparing to depart, a lad who was driving i)ast 

 ordered me off the premises in tones more forcible than polite. 

 He got away too quickly for me to let him know, as I wished 

 to, that I was not offended (as his rapid retreat seemed to 

 suggest I ought to be) by his solicitude for the welfare of his 

 garden. We are getting more and more of this — " Our school," 

 " Our garden " — and it augurs well for the rising generation 

 and for the protection of ])ublic property. Near the school is 

 a splendid si)ecimen of Acacia homalopliylla. Myall, about 

 25 feet high, and very symmetrical. It was a mass of bright 



