THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 147 



beg (or steal) from the very few residents then located here, 

 seemed to be quite sufficient for their requirements, as they 

 looked both sleek and happy, excepting when some goodnatured 

 but injudicious person gave them some rum ; then all was Pande- 

 monium and excitement, ending generally in the " survival of 

 the fittest," the " ladies " coming off second best. Around 

 Frankston some of the finest trees of the Coast Honeysuckle 

 (Bauksia integrifolia) are to be found, and as these were just 

 nicely in bloom, the whole place seemed to be alive with birds, 

 principally honey-eaters, although I could not, in passing, note 

 any particular kinds. 



Having passed the " one-mile scrub " we hurry on through 

 Carrum, a most weird and desolate-looking place ; and it was 

 near this place that the once well-known half-way house stood, 

 the hospitality of its owner having been proverbial amongst 

 travellers in these parts. Those who have by night crossed this 

 space between Mordialloc and Frankston will well remember 

 the singular bellowing and booming note of the Bittern, and, 

 although the Carrum district is drear in the extreme, a very fan- 

 collection of birds'-eggs might be made by a collector were he to 

 remain about here for a few days, more particularly those of the 

 wading birds. A few minutes more and the flats bordering on 

 Frankston appear, and in these, plainly visible from the train, are 

 feathery spikes of Aru/ido phragmites, the common swamp reed ; 

 also Azolla rubra, which gave to the pool in which it grew quite 

 a reddish appearance. Large quantities of the so-called and 

 misnamed Swamp-Oak, Viminaria denudata, grow here, but the 

 cattle, it seemed, had mutilated them very much, as a number 

 of cows were seen grazing in the swamp, and up to their bellies 

 in water. A shrill whistle announced that we were approaching 

 Frankston, and very soon after I was trudging along on my way 

 to the township, which, singularly enough, at most of our up- 

 country places, is nearly always some distance from the railway 

 terminus, thereby often causing much inconvenience to travellers. 



Frankston, formerly but a fishing village, is now quite an 

 important place, with large hotels, coffee palaces, banks, &c. 

 In the old days the only hotel here, which was kept by the son of 

 the oldest resident of the district, who has been here for forty-five 

 years, will be long remembered by those who had to travel by 

 land between Melbourne and Schnapper Point. 



The Frankston district is a rare place for plants, as close to the 

 township one can find the lovely "Fringe Flower," Arthropodium 

 tuberosum^ Stackhousia, Stylidium (two or three species), many 

 kinds of Pimeleas, Leptospermums, and other pretty plants, and 

 proceeding a mile or so inland a perfect garden of wild flowers 

 is to be seen. Here it was that our Dr. Morrison found, for the 

 first time near Melbourne, that pretty plant, Boronia algida, then 



