THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 15 



Passing through low-lying land on which grew large quantities 

 of Selaginella uliginosa, Lobelia anceps, Haloragis, &c, &c, we 

 crossed a small rise, on the left side of which is a fence and some 

 traces of former civilization, before the land boom atrocities set 

 in. The advance party were some distance already when a 

 coo-ee from those in the rear announced the capture of a snake, 

 which, although not killed by one of the party (some of whom had 

 begged the specimen from a man who had just despatched it), 

 furnished some very interesting particulars, ascertained by Mr. 

 M'Alpine, who informs me that the heart continued beating for 

 6yi hours after the vertebrae had been severed. Flukes were 

 also found in its gullet, windpipe, and stomach, of a still undeter- 

 mined species. A nematode worm, 6 inches in length, was found 

 in the stomach, and is now being determined and described by 

 Dr. Cobb, of Sydney. Not a bad afternoon's work, after all, I 

 think you will say. 



Steering in the direction of Mordialloc, we came across scrubby 

 rises, covered with various Epacrids, Acacias, &c. Eriochilus 

 autumnalis was, up till the present time, the only orchid seen in 

 bloom, although we presently found a solitary specimen of 

 Pterostylis aphylla, a species not uncommon in the Brighton 

 district. About a mile from the Oakleigh station there occurs a 

 thick belt of Tea-tree — -Melaleuca squarrosa — some plants of 

 which attain quite a respectable height, although, in these 

 districts it usually is little else but a shrub. Plants in bloom 

 were scarce, the season being both too late and too early for them ; 

 the principal ones noticed as being in flower were Styphelia 

 scoparia (better known to you, perhaps, as Mouotoca scoparia), 

 Styphelia humifusa (the pretty little native cranberry), Acacia 

 oxycearus (just budding), Hakea, Melaleuca, Wahlenbergia, 

 Cassytha, Lotanthus, one or two species of Eucalypts; and the 

 always welcome little Native Daisy, Brachycome gramini folia, 

 grew here, there, and everywhere. The Melaleuca scrub about 

 here was very dense, and just inside a wire fence grew a number 

 of stunted Eucalypts — E. viminalis, E. pauciflora, and a dwarf 

 kind of stringybark, possibly E. obliqua(l) In the middle of 

 this group was found a solitary specimen of Acacia linearis, a 

 species not often occurring so far away from the mountains. 

 The specimen is about 20 ft. high. Steering about due west we 

 came across a scrubby hill, on which some family had commenced 

 to cultivate. We did not envy them their prospect, as the land 

 here is poor in the extreme. Near this humble little homestead, 

 were found some old posts lying upon the ground, relics evidently 

 of some early days post-and-rail fencing. One of the party, 

 whose forte is botany and entomology, with a pretty keen eye for 

 whatever may turn up in the natural history line, essayed to lift 

 one of these posts for the purpose of hunting for beetles and like 



