30 Barnard, Notes of a Visit to W.A. [ 



Vict. Nat.. 

 Vol. XXXVI. 



SO missed the meeting, and decorated his home instead. I 

 understand they arrived in very good order. 



Next day a friend gave up the day to introduce me to the 

 Kalamunda railway Hne, and I would advise any flower-lover 

 visiting Western Austraha in August or September to take 

 one or more trips up this line. I took only two, because I had 

 not time for more. The line leaves the main line at Midland 

 Junction and strikes south-east for the Darling Range, up 

 which it climbs by means of a zig-zag like that formerly in use 

 near Lithgow, in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales. 

 The line was bordered with flowers on either side for miles. 

 Soon after leaving Midland the rusty Kangaroo Paw appears, 

 then Manglesii, with a few viridis ; then Kennedya coccinea 

 climbing over the smaller shrubs and gum sapUngs, converting 

 them into pillars of brick-red flowers. It is an extremely 

 pretty creeper, and I am glad that plants are now growing in 

 our Botanical Gardens. Then fine patches of Leschenaultia, 

 some of deeper blue than others ; then the. Smoke-bush, 

 Conospermum (?), a white, woolly flower, appearing in the 

 distance like so much smoke ; and lots of others which I regret 

 I cannot exhibit or tell you the names of. We left the train at 

 Kalamunda (20 miles, and 920 feet above sea-level) and started 

 off through the bush down the range to Midland, a distance 

 of some twelve miles. The country was very rough, granite 

 outcropping over a large portion of it, but the excitement of 

 seeing so many unfamiliar flowers made me forget the rough- 

 ness of the travelling. I cannot remember now all we saw. 

 Almost our only orchid was Caladenia /lava, resembling our 

 C. latifolia, but of a beautiful lemon colour. I was disappointed 

 in not seeing more acacias around Perth ; perhaps I was too 

 late for them, but as Western Australia is such a stronghold 

 of the genus (140 in the extra-tropical portion), it must be that 

 I did not strike their habitats. We saw one that day with 

 extensive flanges to the stems and branches. Two or three 

 Grevilleas were met with, and a part of the track bordered 

 with an allied genus, Petrophila, was very fine, while Kennedya 

 coccinea was everywhere, so that I returned to town with a 

 nice collection. A large proportion of the plants met with were 

 of a very woody type, and consequently a collector would 

 have considerable trouble in making herbarium specimens of 

 them. 



My next excursion was a run by railway to Fremantle. 

 Two plants excited my attention here. The blue Lupin of 

 our gardens grew in many places along the line, and was 

 flowering freely, while the display made by the introduced 

 Cape-weed, Calostemma calendulacca, exceeded anything I had 

 seen before. Perhaps the underlying limestone of tlic land 



