220 Field Naturalists' Club — Proceedings. [v^r^XXX 



By Mr. J. Searle. — Specimens of large earthworms from the 

 Bavv Baw i)lateau, also freshwater worms from a pond in the 

 Zoological Gardens. 



By Mr. P. R. H. St. John. — Forty-eight hand-coloured photo- 

 graphs of Australian plants (principally Sandringham flora), 

 executed by Miss Efhe Baker, of Black Rock. 



By Mr. J. R. Tovey. — A specimen of orchid Prasophylliim 

 fiavuni, R. Br., collected by Mr. C. French, jun., near Mount 

 Baw Baw, Victoria, January, 1914. This orchid is a native 

 of New South Wales and Queensland, and has not been previously 

 recorded for Victoria. 



After the usual conversazione the meeting terminated. 



EXCURSION TO BAW BAW. 



Owing to want of space in the last Naturalist the following notes 

 on the physiography of the Baw Baw Range had to be omitted (in 

 page 202) from the printed report. As their pul^lication may help 

 to a better understanding of the locality, opportunity is taken 

 to give them now, together with the names of some additional 

 species in different groups which have since been identified : — 

 " A few words here about the alpine plateau we had come so 

 far to see may be of interest. The Baw Baw Range proper may 

 be considered to extend from Mount Whitelaw to Mount Erica, 

 a distance of rather more than eight miles in a straight line 

 and in the direction of N.W. and S.E., forming the watershed 

 between the Thomson on the east and the Tanjil and Tyers on 

 the west. The ridge generally is not more than half a mile 

 wide, except where there is a south-westerly spur or branch 

 from Mount St. Phillack to Baw Baw itself. Seeing that the 

 height of Erica is given as 5,000 feet and Mount Whitelaw as 

 4,878 feet, with Mt. St. Phillack about midway as 5,140 feet, 

 and that neither of these is a prominent peak, and that its 

 outline, looked at from a distance, is fairly level, the plateau 

 probably averages about 4,800 feet above sea-level. The 

 tourist map shows three peaks — Baw Baw, Mueller, and Tyers 

 — on the western side, the latter being the lowest, and apparently 

 isolated from the main range, but it is probably Baw Baw, 

 Mueller, and Erica that one sees as the three peaks when 

 standing on Mount Donna Buang at Warburton. The tourist 

 track between Erica and Whitelaw, measuring 9 miles 48 chains, 

 is undulating, but none of its hills can be much more than a 

 couple of hundred feet. The great interest of the plateau to 

 the naturalist is that it contains the nearest truly alpine 

 vegetation to Melbourne, while it seemed to those who had 

 visited the Buffalo plateau to be much more alpine in its 

 character. Sphagnum moss borders all the lakelets and swamps, 



