154 Hardy, The Mallee : Ouyen to Pinnaroo. [voU^'xxx. 



jumped absurdly high over the larger to avoid the needle-like 

 leaves, but eat with avidity the fruit, which, right and left, 

 they snatched while on the march. Here, too, was Melaleuca . 

 parvifiora and Dillon-bush and Turpentine — a name that 

 is quite as good as ''Sticky Wallaby-bush" proposed 

 for Beyeria viscosa, a shrub which may be very low or 

 several feet high, and has foliage which, crushed in the hand 

 or bruised by passing hoof or wheel, smells like turpentine. 

 As Turpentine it figures on the Lands Department plans, and 

 indicates good country in the same degree as Porcupine suggests 

 a poorer soil. Another acacia here, not collected nor in 

 bloom, looked like A. retinoides. 



Soon we ascended a sand-hill to take bearings, and located 

 Mount Gnarr, 50 degrees west of south, and 8 or 10 miles away, 

 apparently. The country to the north-west and south-west 

 appeared to be a mixture of sand-hills and flats, and probably 

 the small hill on which we stood was a fair sample of the many 

 in the neighbourhood. Those we crossed later were in many 

 respects similar. The roots of plants on this porous sub- 

 stratum must be of enormous length. Even small plants, of 

 6 or 12 inches height, which I endeavoured to secure whole, 

 defied me. The principal constituents of this sand-hill shrubbery 

 were : — Leptospermum Icevigatum (with smaller leaves than the 

 maritime specimens of this Coast Tea-tree, and giving one the 

 impression that he was not on a far inland sand-hill, but on a 

 coastal sand-hummock, with visions of Myoporum insulare 

 and Styphelia Richei), Casuarina distyla, Banksia ornata (not 

 in bloom), Exocarpus spartea, Bceckia crassifolia, and Grevillea 

 pterosperma — the last-named with old, black fruit-pods gaping 

 and empty. This shrub, I was told, is known as " Plum-bush." 

 I failed to discover any specific difference between the Big 

 Pine of the better land and the She or Little Pine of the 

 poor sand-hills. Both are var. vevfucosa of Callitris rohusta. 

 The only conspicuous blooms were the yellow Acacia salicina 

 and Hihhertia densiflora and the dark blue Halgania lavan- 

 dulacea. A httle later Walpeup was located to the east of south 

 a Httle, and Mounts Gnarr and Jess about 35° west of south. 

 Descending, we made our way north-westerly to a spot north 

 of " Doubtful Plain " (on map of Victoria). This is " One-tree 

 Plain," and about 8 miles north-west of Wymlet. The large, 

 box-barked eucalypt that at the northern extremity of the plain 

 gives it its name was without flowers or fruit, and I could not 

 identify it. It may be E. Behriana. It towers above all the 

 robust mallee eucalypts of the neighbourhood, and is a guide 

 to the plain, some 3 miles in extent, where splendid grass is to 

 be found, but no water, for a camp. This defect, and the 

 desire to explore the country to the north-east, where, 



