552 



At Macquavie Harbour and Port Davey a species of Blandfordia 

 was observed, a lily-like plant, with a crest of scarlet tubular flowers : 

 and on the hills near the former place, was a lichen of a texture re- 

 sembling net-work ; this, " in the abundant rain, was distended into 



masses resembling cauliflowers." " In some places cyperaceous 



plants entwine themselves among the larger shrubs and ascend to their 

 tops, and lichens hang to a great length from the boughs of some of 

 the trees." 



Returning by sea to Hobart Town, our author made an excursion 

 on the opposite side of the river to that on which the town stands: he 

 notices the appearance of Anguillaria dioica, a little, purple-spotted, 

 white-blossomed, bulbous plant, which was decorating a sunny bank 

 as one of the first harbingers of spring, (August 27th) ; and also com- 

 ments on the strange appearance of trees in full foliage laden with 

 snow. It is, we presume, generally known, that the trees of Australia 

 may nearly all be regarded as a kind of evergreens, although not so 

 strictly entitled to that name as those so commonly cultivated in our 

 English gardens. 



On the 26th of September J. Backhouse sailed for Flinder's Island, 

 of which he records nothing botanical that is particularly worthy of 

 notice. On the 20th of October he reached George Town, on the 

 main land of Tasmania; on the 30th Circular Head, and on the 31st 

 Woolnorth. The seaweeds of this shore are of prodigious magnitude ; 

 one, " a palmate species, has a stem thicker than a man's arm, and 

 proportionately long. The flat portion between the stem and the rib- 

 bon-like appendages is so large as to be converted by the blacks into 

 vessels for carrying water. For this purpose they either open an ob- 

 long piece so as to form a flat bag, or run a string through holes in 

 a circular piece, so as to form a round one." Returning to Circular 

 Head he proceeded thence by land to Emu Bay, noticing by the 

 way the grass-trees, to which we shall again recur, and a beautiful 

 Blandfordia, whose stems were eighteen inches high, and supported 

 crests of from ten to twenty pendulous red blossoms, margined with 

 yellow, an inch and a half long, and three quarters of an inch wide at 

 the mouth. On some of the hills Banksia serrifolia was the prevailing- 

 tree ; " it is equal to a pear-tree in size, has leaves three or four inches 

 long and five-eighths broad, and strongly toothed : its heads of flow- 

 ers are six inches long and twelve round, and the seeds are as large 

 as almonds." After a short rest at Emu Bay, — 



" We set out for the Hampshire Hills, distant 20^ miles, through one of the most 

 magnificent of forests. For a few miks from the sea, it consists chiefly of white gum 



