1 68 Audas, A Trip io Mount Beenak. [voKXXXli 



trailing shrub with slender, wiry stems, often supporting itself 

 among the undergrowth ; but here, under favourable conditions, 

 it formed a mass of wiry scrub, which was almost impossible 

 to break through. Three species of Cassytha are prevalent in 

 the scrub, being all leafless, wiry parasites that attach them- 

 selves to living plants, and form string-like tangles on trees 

 and shrubs, having no connection with the ground, but winding 

 themselves over the bushes of their hosts. The larger species 

 is Cassytha pubescens, which is rather coarse, bearing a black 

 berry, and usually spreading over eucalypt saplings, completely 

 tangling them with its cord-like growths. ('. melantha is the 

 commonest, and very often found on Acacia dealbata and other 

 shrubs. It frequently forms a dense mass, covering the bushes 

 with its leafless, thread-like stems ; it has a round, green berry, 

 which is edible. C. glabella is more slender and spreading, 

 growing usually on small shrubs, and bearing quantities ol 

 reddish berries. Where a fire had previously gone through the 

 forest, destroying much valuable timber and many beautiful 

 tree-ferns and silver wattles, the Giani Mountain-grass. Glyceria 

 (Port) dives, had made a prolific growth ; the young shoots of 

 this grass are excellent Iced for stock, but it becomes very rank 

 and harsh when old. Goodenia ovata, Senecio velleyoides, and 

 S. australis had grown robustly, and these conditions seemed 

 favourable to the Hare Orchid. Caladenia Menziesii, and also 

 Stackhousia linarifolia, with its handsome spikes of perfume- 

 spreading flowers. 



Around Gembrook the timber has been cleared and most of 

 the land cultivated: the soil is of good quality, being of 

 volcanic character. From this township a good road leads 

 right to the top of Mount Beenak, .1 distance of about fourteen 

 miles. /:;; route a pretty sight was presented al M'Crae's * 

 by the line, tall bushes ot the handsome leguminous shrub 

 Oxylobium alpestre, which were a dazzling ma-. -1 orange- 

 yellow flowers. This i~- an erect shrub of bom ten to twenty 

 feel in height, with lanceolate leaves between two and three 

 inches in length, and is well worthy ot garden cultivation. 

 Hen also Zieria Smithii, Kunzea peduncularis, and the 

 scrambling shrub Olearia [Aster) stellulata, var. lira/a, were 

 covered with white flowers. Rambling along the road, a wealth 



o1 vegetation was revealed, the hillsides presenting a 1 



charming scene, being covered with the golden-yellov flowers 

 oi Pultencea mollis, the pinkish-mauve flowers ol Tetratheca 

 ciliata, tin large white flowers ot Olearia (Aster) stellulata, -^\'\ 

 the rose-coloured flowers and also the white variety ot Bauer a 

 rubioides. These wen- blended in perfeel harmony, and formed 

 ontrasl to the dull-coloured granito boulders that 

 wry numerous here. The track wind up through a 1 



