202 Excursion to Baiv Baiv. [vof' xxx 



summer yielding up their moisture to feed numerous creeks 

 draining into the Thomson, the Tanjil, or the Tyers. These 

 are edged with yellow sphagnum moss, and in summer bordered 

 with flowering plants and shrubs of great variety. As a guide 

 for the tourist in bad weather, poles have been set up at 

 intervals to point out the track. On the whole, we were too 

 late for conspicuous flowers, for, besides the Asters and 

 Candolleas, which were in thousands, and were well worth the 

 journey to see, the pale lemon bottle-brush flowers of the 

 Mountain Bottle-brush, Callistemon Sieberi (Myrtacese), were 

 perhaps the most conspicuous, though in places a deep orange 

 composite, Podolepis longipedata, was fairly plentiful. We now 

 passed between the wind-swept, granite-strewn mounds marked 

 on the tourist map as Erica and Talbot, and by 8.30 a.m. 

 had reached the two-roomed house thoughtfully provided for 

 travellers by the Tourist Department. We had been told at 

 the Bureau that we would find Talbot Creek dried up, and so 

 it was near the house, but our guide soon found a plentiful 

 supply of water a Httle further down the mountain side. The 

 creek and mount take their name from Governor Talbot, who, 

 it will be remembered, in January, 1907, inaugurated the track 

 from Warburton to Walhalla. 



Having reached the shelter-house, most of the party elected 

 to stay in its vicinity exploring, taking photographs, or perhaps 

 resting, but Messrs. Armytage, French, and myself were eager 

 to explore to a greater distance, and perhaps reach Baw Baw 

 itself, about six miles away, so Mr. Rawson readily agreed to 

 show us some of the country off the beaten tourist track, 

 which, by the way, is a mere horse-pad meandering between 

 the trees and stones, and keeping to the higher ground, 

 avoiding swamps and soaks as much as possible. We were 

 soon exploring a marshy flat near one of the heads of Talbot 

 Creek, where we found three rather rare orchids — viz., Prciso- 

 phyllum Siittoni, Rogers and Rees, P. brevilabre, Hook f., and 

 TJielymitra venosa, R. Br., the latter, which is new to Victoria, 

 being found in hundreds growing on the edges of the dampest 

 parts of the flat. The first-named was recently described by 

 Dr. Rogers, of Adelaide, from the Buffalo plateau. The water 

 seemed too clear for pond life, but scrapings from the edges of 

 the pools were taken for another member of the party. Any- 

 thing of interest was bottled or boxed, for what we did not 

 want there were others ready to receive. We headed 

 the South and North Cascade Creeks, finding in the morass 

 feeding the latter Cabomba peltata (our only representative of 

 the Nymphacese in Victoria), but not in flower, and therefore 

 suggest that the picturesque glen in which it is situated might 

 be called " Cabomba Glen," as a set-off to TiUicutty Glen, on 



