Ij"^'] Hardy, The Mallee : Guy en to PinnavoG. iqi 



beyond Birchip. Mallee scrub with Casuarina and box flats 

 continue till a desert patch between Turriff and Ouyen is 

 reached, with pines increasing in quantity. After this the 

 characteristic flora of the Mallee is continuous. The daylight 

 faded soon after passing Birchip, and subsequent observations 

 as far as Ouyen were by moonlight, and doubtful. 



After a short sleep at a lodging-house, we were up at 6 for a 

 hurried examination of the immediate environment of the town- 

 ship before early breakfast. Many interesting trees and shrubs 

 were seen here, amongst others Fusanus [Santalum) persicarius, 

 with fruit (neglected because of its bitterness), F. acuminatus, 

 with fruit missing (one would not expect to find a quandong 

 bearing ripe fruit near a settlement, since the pericarp of this 

 once-named native peach is eaten raw when ripe, or before 

 maturity made into jam), Pittosporum phillyrceoides, with 

 pendent flexible twigs that earned the name " wdllow " for it 

 locally, and with hard-coated fruits, sometimes 2 but occasion- 

 ally 3-valved, rich yellow without, gaping and expo'sing orange- 

 red sticky seeds within, and altogether a pretty shrub, or, 

 rather, small tree. The flowers of this species are pale yellow, 

 and the wood, exceedingly brittle, is close-grained, creamy, 

 and suitable for carving and wood engraving. Other shrubs 

 were Hakea leucoptera, Acacia salicina, and Cassia eremophila. 

 K few pines were still to be seen, and Heterodendron olecefolium 

 here and there made one of the few tree growths of smaU size. 

 None of the MaUee eucalypts near at hand had flowers or 

 fruit, and were not identified. 



From Ouyen we drove in a buggy, in which were stored 

 provisions for several days, and, with three horses drawing, 

 we soon covered the 6 miles of the road to the pump, 

 tank and trough which were the outward and visible 

 signs of Tiega. The absence of goodly-sized pines along the 

 road is accounted for partly by the past demand for this ant- 

 resisting timber for house-building and fence posts. The 

 country was fairly open, with clumps of low eucalyptus scrub, 

 and further vegetated with Acacia salicina (the orange-yellow 

 bloom of which was very conspicuous where other blooms were 

 scarce), Hakea leiicoptera, &c. Occasionally small sahne flats 

 could be seen monopolized by sometimes several or at others 

 only one member of the Salsolaceae. Thus, a flat might bear 

 Atriplex, Kochia, and Salicornia, or Sahcornia might be wanting. 

 Again, Sahcornia (S. australis) would have a monopoly. This 

 fleshy-twigged plant is locally called Bead-bush. Here and 

 there we saw areas containing surface limestone, the result 

 of deposition on evaporation of water brought up by capillary 

 attraction. There are also deposits called kopi, and " kopi flats '' 

 are spoken of. I could not see that any marked difference in 



