98 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



understood that it is a question, lik-e so many others, with two 

 sides ; for what I object to, and the main object of writing this 

 note, is the positive way — I had almost said the cocksure way 

 — in which some speak of these organisms, as if their systematic 

 position was beyond dispute. I always remember in cases of 

 this kind a saying of my old teacher. Professor Huxley — " The 

 next best thing to being certain of what is certain, is to be 

 uncertain of what is uncertain." 



RECORDS OF PLANTS NEW TO VICTORIA AND 

 NEW DISTRICTS FOR VICTORIAN PLANTS. 



By Chas. Walter. Communicated by C. French, jun. 

 {Read he/ore the Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria, lith August, 1899.) 



At the July meeting of the Field Naturalists' Club I noticed that 

 Mr. F. M. Reader, of Dimboola, exhibited specimens of the plants 

 Goodenia ovata, Smith, and Xanthorrhcea australis, R. Brown, as 

 neto plants for the N.W. district of Victoria. 



Some twelve years ago, when collecting in that district, I saw 

 plants of the Goodenia on the banks of the Wimmera, and 

 noticed the grass-trees, XantJiorrhoea australis, not far from Mr. 

 Cowell's station, in Victoria, but near the South Australian border. 

 Mr. Reader has no doubt been guided by the second part of 

 Baron von Mueller's " Key to the System of Victorian Plants," 

 which records the different districts in which plants have been 

 found. This index was published in 1885, and though supple- 

 mentary lists have been printed in your journal, it is now some 

 years since any additions to it have been published. In the 

 meantime several collectors have visited the Mallee country,, 

 among them my friend Mr. St. Eloy D'Alton, of Nhill, who 

 possesses a thorough knowledge of the Mallee flora, and who 

 kept the late Baron von Mueller constantly informed of any new 

 discoveries, as I also did, which the Baron duly noted for a new 

 edition of his list of Victorian plants. 



On the occasion of my first visit to the Grampians, some 

 fourteen years ago, I reported to the Baron sixteen species from 

 that locality alone which had not been recorded in the "Key" 

 from the S.W. district. I have no doubt Mr. Reader will still 

 find plants in the Northern Mallee, which, though new to him, 

 are already known to Mr. D'Alton, an abstract of whose " Notes 

 on the Plants Indigenous to the N.W. Portion of the Colony of 

 Victoria " has recently been published in the " Proceedings of 

 the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science,"' 

 Sydney session, 1898. My remarks apply also to former exhibits 

 by Mr. Reader — for instance, Goodenia amplexans, F. v. M.,. 

 • specimens of which I have in my herbarium, collected in company 

 with Mr, D'Alton in 1887, in the north-west. 



I beg to submit the following additions to the plants recorded 



