Oct 



'9 



iV] WiTLTAMSON, Botumcal Notes of a Trip to Mildura. ioq 



A ride up the river-bank towards the cemetery takes one 

 across a small plain studded \vith A triplex mimmtdarium. Old- 

 man Salt-bush. The plants have been well grazed over, and 

 nothing but rigid, almost spiny, branches are presented on the 

 outside. The only other plant in flower in this clay flat was 

 Brachycome pachyptera. Hardhead Daisy, and this looked well, 

 making as it did an almost continuous carpet of white daisies. 

 Coming back past the cemetery, the pumping plant, and 

 Nicholls Point State school, with its prize garden, I was able, 

 owing to the late hour, to spend only a short time at each, and 

 then to push on rapidly through Irymple, without being able 

 to give more than a glance at the beautiful orchards which 

 proclaim the remarkable fertility of the soil. However, the 

 picture presented by a single orange tree, covered with its deep- 

 coloured, almost scarlet fruit, standing alone in a grove of fruit- 

 laden lemon trees, pulled me up short, and thrilled me with 

 delight. Fine bushes of Cassia eremophila, Desert Cassia, and 

 the rare C. phyllodinea. Leafless Cassia, and, of the Acacias, 

 salicina, colletioides, and oxycedrus, Willow Wattle, Furze 

 Wattle, and Spike Acacia, were blooming all along the roads 

 towards Irymple school. 



Having spent five days at Mildura, I left, regretting that I 

 could not stay a few weeks to study the later-flowering plants, 

 including the grasses, few of which were in bloom. The 

 weather was not very favourable during my stay. Rain fell 

 at intervals, and spoiled some of my outings, and I shall never 

 forget my experience of Mildura mud, especially that which 

 clogged my bicycle, so that I had to carry it to a pool to wash it 

 before I could trundle it home. To see pedestrians on the 

 streets calmly tramping through the red mud, of the consistency 

 of mashed potatoes, made me wonder whether the citizens had 

 really given up all hope of having cement, asphalt, brick, stone, 

 or wood-paved streets and footpaths. I was told that the same 

 mud, dried and pulverized, forms, a few months later, one 

 of the terrors of the summer. By the colour of it one can 

 understand the origin of the term " brickfielder " as applied 

 to a hot-wind day in those parts. 



As to the birds of Mildura, I was disappointed at seeing so 

 few. Brush Wattle-birds, Red Wattle-birds, Miners, and 

 Magpie-Larks were among the casuarinas, and I saw one White 

 Egret on the Murray. The trustful little Ground-Dove inter- 

 ested me as it ran along close to the track. The most remark- 

 able thing to me was the absence of White Cockatoos. As a 

 rule, the almost deafening cries of these birds is a characteristic 

 of the Murray flats, but during my stay at Mildura I did not 

 hear one. I was informed, however, that these birds are very 

 numerous, and that they destroy large quantities of almonds. 



