51 



of the dividing range, from Brisbane to Port Jackson, and even 

 further. This is Verbena honariensis, often mot with cultivated in 

 gardens, though there is nothing very attractive about it. Ifc 

 produces spikes of flowers something like lavender, but with 

 no perfume. On the Cow- pasture Plains and the Nepean 

 River it grows thickly on rich soils, often producing shrubs of 

 over eight feet in height. It bids fair to become a mischievous 

 weed. Already patches of many acres may be seen on the rich 

 alluvial plains of any of the coast rivers. No animal eats it, 

 so unless some unlooked-for check meet it the species is likely 

 to spread. 



One of the most attractive features of the northern ports 

 of tropical Australia, is the profusion of large pink and 

 white flowers, which line the shores and surround the town. 

 In Townsville or Cleveland Bay the beach looks really beautiful 

 from this cause. The flowers are pink and white varieties 

 of Vinca rosea, a tropical relative of the well-known Vinca 

 major, or common perry winkle. The flower of the Queensland 

 weed is very like the perrywinkle iu size and shape, but the 

 plant, instead of being a creeper, is a strong succulent under 

 shrub, with stout, dark green leaves. It is the only very 

 common weed or flower one meets all about the settled districts 

 from Queensland northwards. It is not confined to the coast. 

 It is just as common round the town of Charters Towers as at 

 Townsville, and I found it abundant at Thornborough and 

 Kingston, as the two townships of the Hodgkinson Diggings 

 are called. It grows abundantly about Brisbane, but not to the 

 extent that it is found round the settlements within the tropics. 

 It is not at all difficult to account for its spread. Belonging 

 to the order of Ajwcynacoea or dogbanes, its leaves are acrid 

 and poisonous, so that no animal, not even the almost omniv- 

 orous goat, will touch it. It seeds abundantly; and, 'as it is 

 always in flower, there is practically no limit to its spread, as 

 the seeds are very easily carried about by the wind. But it is 

 strange to me how it follows the haunts of man, and it is not 

 found at intervening places. I do not think it was transplanted 

 to the Hodgkinson Diggings, yet there it is abundantly on the 

 hills. That settlement is not yet four years old at the time I 

 am writing. It is like the house nettle, it clings to the dwel- 

 ling and is never far away from the houses. Another peculi- 

 arity in this species is its liability to vary. There is a white 

 and a beautiful rose pink variety. The white flower has often 

 a red centre, and the pink a white centre. But flowers uni- 

 formly white or pink are the most common. Now, one would 

 imagine that this arises from cross-breeding, but it is not so. 

 The flower of Virica rosea is so constructed that it must fer- 

 tilise itself. Like nearly all the members of the order, the style 



