26 Barnard, Notes of a Visit to W.A. [vo^.'^^xxxvi. 



plants and shrubs when travelUng at thirty miles an hour 

 and over, through unfamiliar country, are considerable, more 

 especially as at least a chain on either side of the track has been 

 cleared absolutely of every sign of vegetation, probably on 

 account of the risk of fire. By a chance stoppage of the train 

 for some slight defect of the engine some twenty miles beyond 

 Tarcoola I was able to pick my first flowers — a low-growing 

 White Everlasting, probably Heliptentm floribundttm of our 

 Wimmera and North-Western Plains, as these were growing 

 close to the line. At about 280 miles I saw a scarlet patch on 

 the ground near the edge of the cleared space, which I put 

 down as being Sturt's Desert Pea, and, though I could not pick 

 it up on my return, when at Tarcoola a resident presented the 

 passengers with bunches of the finest flowers of that plant I 

 had ever seen, grown in her garden, I am pretty sure my 

 surmise was right. Some of these I exhibited at the recent 

 wild-flower exhibition, but they had by that time (nine days 

 later) almost lost their beauty. My next identification was a 

 quondong tree bearing fruit. Many other shrubs were in bloom, 

 some of which I took to be Acacias, but later, at Barton, I 

 found I had, owing to the distance, been mistaking a Cassia 

 for an Acacia. Of course, all the trees of any size near the 

 line had long ago been used up by the construction parties for 

 huts and firewood, so that those remaining were very poor 

 specimens of gums, black-oke, and myall. A shrub with red 

 flowers was never near enough for me to make even a guess 

 at. It was probably a Templetonia. 



About 100 miles beyond Tarcoola we ran into sand-hill 

 country, and at 10.30 a.m. pulled up at Barton, for the east- 

 bound train to pass. This, we learned, would be an hour 

 late, consequently I was able to examine some of the shrubs,' 

 &c., near the line, finding several Acacias, a Cassia, quondongs, 

 and many others strange to me. Continuing on among sand- 

 hills, several unfamiliar shrubs were seen. About 2 p.m. we 

 left the sand-hill country and entered on the straight run of 

 300 miles across the NuUabor Plain — " Nullabor " meaning 

 " no trees." This is often called desert, but it is not so. The 

 plain is covered with low saltbush, with here and there a taller 

 bush ; limestone outcrops alongside the track, and requires 

 little excavating for use as ballast. About 8.30 p.m., near 

 Deakin, we entered Western Australia, and when we looked 

 out next morning found we had left the Nullabor Plain behind 

 and had reached Zanthus (921 miles), the most interesting 

 locality we had yet seen. Shrubs of many kinds were plentiful, 

 several being in flower, while here and there were salmon gums 

 and gimlet-wood — the latter a gum with very twisted grain, 

 hence its name. The timber lasts for some miles, then, as 



