AUSTRALIAN VEGETATION. 79 



worthy of a place in the herbarium of a botanical student. 

 At the -present time, when a network of railways is rapidly 

 covering Australia, the facilities for botanical excursions are 

 exceptionally great. Yet we find even those charming spots 

 contiguous to our own metropolis comparatively unvisited. 

 Mount Macedon, Fernshaw, and Dandenong, for instance, 

 though so near to Melbourne, are little known to its citizens. 

 The lover of nature would feel delighted with a visit to 

 these localities. If he wander through their thickly-wooded 

 glens and rich fern gullies, where streamlets of pure spring 

 water gently trickle, and on the banks of which the ' woolly 

 tree-fern ' (Dkksonia antarctica), overshadowed by lofty 

 gum-trees, often grows to more than thirty feet in height, 

 he will be filled with wonder and admiration. Striking out 

 from the beaten tracks, the visitor can plunge at once into 

 the primeval forest, forcing his way through the most 

 impenetrable thickets of ' dogwood ' (Prostanthera lasi- 

 anthos), native hazel (Pomaderris apetala), musk (Okaria 

 argophylla), cotton-wood {Senecio Bedfordii), Pimelea, and 

 pepper-tree (Drimys aro7naticd) ; occasionally encountering a 

 gigantic ' stringy-bark ' {Eucalyptus machorrhynchd) or ' mess- 

 mate 5 {Eucalyptus obliqud) towering majestically above or 

 lying prone among the underwood, its mighty stem — ■ 

 often as much as fifteen feet in diameter — completely 

 blocking the way. Clear spaces of grass - land may 

 sometimes be met with, margined with jungles of ' Tas- 

 manian tea-bush ' {Leptospermum scopariuni), ' native furze ' 

 {Hakea ulicina), 'native hop' (Daviesza), etc., whilst the 

 brilliant inflorescence of the native heath (Epacrls), which 

 is plentifully sprinkled over the landscape, lends to it an 

 additional charm. On entering those sylvan wilds, one is 



