THE GORGEOUS GULLY 97 



makes a mirror for the beauties here and there in a rocky 

 pool; and if it murmurs now and then at leaving- the flowers 

 in the upper slopes, it does not grumble long, for it is 

 hastening to fresh beauties in the lower gorge. 



For the wealth of this valley seems inexhaustible, and 

 never has spring poured forth her treasures with so lavish 

 a hand. From the upper slope you look down across the 

 myriad yellow flower spikes to the lower vallev. where 

 amongst the deep soft green of the sassafras and water-gums 

 countless splashes of gold tell of the existence of still another 

 pea-flower (pultenea flexilis). This one is sweeter and more 

 graceful than its stately sister on the hillside, and spreads in 

 tall slender shrubs all over the creek bed, till the sun itself 

 seems to have slipped into the valley and lost its way. 



And then, as if this wealth of gold were not enough, the 

 " flaunting extravagant queen " has spread the slopes beneath 

 the rocks with a carpet of the pale pink boronia. All amongst 

 the taller golden blossoms it grows, and if it cannot vie in 

 gorgeousness with them, its sweetness and delicacy give it a 

 charm of its own, unknown to the more flaunting flowers. 

 And down in the rocks of the creek itself great clumps of the 

 wild dog-rose (bauera rubioides) add an old-world note to 

 the scheme. 



If you had to travel a hundred miles to see my gully I 

 am sure you would set off in your cars and carriages at once. 



