THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 73 



prepared, that there are 500 acres of neglected and abandoned 

 orchards within a radius of ten miles of Melbourne, is, I 

 feel certain, greatly below the mark. Skirting a formidable- 

 looking swamp, we found ourselves obliged to cross the 

 headland of a market garden in which grew splendid cabbages 

 and cauliflowers ; and, upon questioning the owner (who was 

 accosted, partly as an apology for our having entered his garden 

 without permission), we were informed that the cabbages would 

 have to " lie there and rot,'' as there were " no ships " to take 

 them away — another incident of the strike. Having parted with 

 our good friend the market gardener, we turned south again, follow- 

 ing an old track, and it was here that a Bronzewing Pigeon flew 

 past us. Birds seemed fairly numerous, the Wattled Honey-eaters, 

 Australian Minah, Crow Shrikes, and others being frequently seen 

 during the morning. A very pretty watercourse, the bank of 

 which is clothed with low Honeysuckle (Banksia) afforded us an 

 hour's good amusement, the trees being badly attacked by grubs 

 of both moths and longicorns, and " cut boughs," so well known 

 to field entomologists as the abode of that very elegant beetle, 

 Uracanthus triangularis, were also seen, and some of the smaller 

 Banksias were badly attacked by a black scale insect which has 

 been determined as a new species of Lecanium. 



The gum trees hereabouts seemed to be suffering very much 

 from the attacks of the larvae of the common saw-fly, whilst the 

 singular looking lumps or excrescences which could be seen on 

 many young gum saplings are doubtless caused by the singular 

 insects belonging to the Brachyscelidae. A black micro-fungi 

 (possibly closely allied to Capnodium citri) was found attendant, 

 as usual, upon the leaves of the Banksia and other plants on 

 which scale-insects of several kinds had fastened themselves. It 

 was now getting towards noon, so we camped and had lunch, 

 which necessary proceeding was not the least enjoyable part of 

 the programme. Lunch over, we again struck into the heath- 

 ground proper, passing on our way quantities of plants (many of 

 them being old favourites), as Bossicea cinerea, Adtus villosus, 

 Divsera whittakeri and D. peltata, Sprengelia, orchids Pterostylis 

 cucullata, P. curta, and a solitary specimen of P. aphylla, while 

 that curious fern, Schizcea bifida, was more plentiful than we had 

 ever seen it before, Acacia oxycedrus and Styphelia virgatus being 

 at their best. Passing through some abandoned market gardens, 

 on the surface of which were lying huge preserving melons 

 and, must we confess it, some very hot and tough radishes, and 

 once more in the open, we pushed on towards Cheltenham, 

 and about here we noticed that beautiful but shy bird, the 

 Little Grass Bird ( Sphemcacus gramineus). We next came to 

 an old road now barely perceptible, but which I at once 

 recognized as the old road between Dandenong and Cheltenham, 



