144 A USTRALIAN BOTANY. 



Native Daisy. — BRACHYCOME. (Natural Order, 

 Composite.) Pp. 32, 200. — A large genus of annual or 

 perennial herbs, closely allied to the common Field Daisy 

 (Bellt's). Brachycome multifida has attractive purple flowers. 

 It is indigenous to Victoria and New South Wales, and is 

 found on the lowlands, and ascending to sub-alpine eleva- 

 tions. It may often be seen on the tops of mountains, where 

 bush fires have occurred, carpeting the blackened and 

 calcined surface of the earth with its bright green foliage and 

 pretty flowers. Brachycome iberidifolia is known as the 

 Swan River Daisy. In the hills near Adelaide, B. diversifolia 

 — the diverse-leaved Brachycome — is very abundant in 

 September and October. The flowers are rather large 

 and white, and their stalks from six to twelve inches high. 

 Another species, B. cih'aris, is abundant in the Mallee scrubs 

 of Yorke's Peninsula, having very narrowly divided leaves 

 and purplish flowers. Other species are minute, and form 

 a dense carpet with other plants. The genus is confined to 

 Australia and New Zealand. 



Native Elder.— SAMBUCUS. (Natural Order, Capri- 

 FOLiACEyE.) P. 38. — Two species of Elder occur in Aus- 

 tralia, of which Sambucus xanthocarpa bears yellow berries ; 

 it is a tall shrub, or small tree, indigenous to New South 

 Wales and Moreton Bay; principally met with on the banks 

 of streams, and not unlike the common Elder in habit and 

 appearance. The other species, Sambucus Gaudichaudiaua, 

 is a perennial, throwing up stems of from 3 to 5 feet annually, 

 which after the fruit is ripe die down to the root-stock. 

 This plant is invariably found in moist valleys, on mountain 

 slopes, and banks of watercourses. Its large bunches of 

 succulent white semi-transparent berries, somewhat resem- 



