i6o Hardy, The Mallee : Ouyen to Pinnaroo. rv^T^Soc^i 



the main road, with here and there a box eucalypt (not 

 specifically identified), until we reached Cow Plains, where the 

 country is open, with large mallee eucalypts here and there, 

 some with large lumps of the limestone with which Cow Plains 

 is charged about the stem bases, as though the trees, in growing, 

 has raised them from the general level of the plain, as paving 

 stones are displaced by growing street trees. The thickest 

 stem of the larger mallee shown in the lantern picture is 

 i8 inches diameter, and, irrespective of species, large growths 

 like this are called Big Mallee, Giant Mallee, and Bull Mallee. 

 The smallest of all mallee is called Whipstick, and may be 

 found along the road to Murrayville and other parts of the 

 State — north and west of Bendigo, for instance. 



Arrived at Murrayville, we discussed Mallee questions while 

 seated on rustic seats of sawn mallee root round a mallee-root 

 fire at a Mallee settler's home. Next morning I set off with 

 Mr. Crosbie to tap the desert country about 12 miles to the 

 south, and after riding through miles of selected land, some 

 in process of cultivation, some bearing crop, and some being 

 cleared of scrub by means of bullock teams drawing Red Gum 

 tree-trunks as rollers, we reached the poor country, bearing 

 Melaleuca uncinata, Bceckia Behrii, Porcupine, &c., and at 

 last reached the desert fringe, beyond which miles of country 

 were burnt, leaving only the charred remains of dwarf eucalypts, 

 melaleuca, stunted pine, &c., to indicate the nature of the 

 flora. Meandering emu tracks were plentiful, and the restive- 

 ness of the horses suggested a ground — if not a body — scent, 

 perceptible to them, though the birds were not visible. 

 Evidently the emus had wandered over the burnt area in quest 

 of scorched beetles, «&c., and perhaps Ming fruit. Professor 

 Ewart's recent paper, " Delayed Dehiscence in Calhstemon," 

 was brought to mind by the sight of the scorched capsules of 

 Melaleuca (an allied genus of hke habit), freely open. The 

 seeds were perhaps already preparing to germinate (though, 

 being small, none were seen), and next season the area would 

 be all reclothed with dwarf forest. My companion was now 

 ill from effects of water drunk at the clay-hole on Sunset Track 

 after the long, hot ride from One-tree Plain, and, having nothing 

 to warrant our continuing our journey further south, we 

 returned to Murrayville. About half-way to the desert fringe 

 there is, at a small water-hole in the midst of a 

 wheatfield, two River (!) Red Gums, Eucalyptus rostrata — the 

 only specimens to be found in the district. These escaped 

 slaughter and conversion into mallee-rollers by forking at a few 

 feet from the ground. The branching was conspicuously acute- 

 angled. At Murrayville that night we searched for seedling pines 

 by the hght of a lantern carried by an enthusiastic member of 



