304 



A. A. HAMILTON. 



more spirals round the branch, securing a foothold from 

 which the climbing shoot advances to a higher plane, the 

 pendulous stems eventually festooning the shrubs in the 

 immediate vicinity. 



A perrenial Sonchus (under review), is sparsely sprinkled 

 among the Spinifex trails, or dotted on the bare dune slopes. 

 This deep-rooting species has adopted both sexual and 

 vegetative methods of reproduction, the former for dis- 

 tributive purposes (seeds), and the latter as a colonising 

 agency (offsets). The young plants spread outwards 

 encircling and protecting the parent plant, and maintaining 

 it in an elevated position in the centre of the cluster. 



A widely distributed extra-tropical "Rush," Scirpus 

 nodosus L., is the most prominent Oyperaceous plant on 

 the shoreline. It advances to the frontal dune slopes and 

 is frequent on the plateau, its solitary tufts rising from 

 the bare sand or turf lawn, imparting a marked feature to 

 the dune landscape. Its intricate system of stout, wiry, 

 strongly jointed rhizomes, provides a foundation upon which 

 the closely packed superstructure of elongated stems is 

 secure from overthrow by the fiercest storm blasts. It is 

 equally in evidence on the rocky escarpment and headland, 

 in sand-patches, soil-pockets and rock crevices. 



The dune embankment which has gradually lowered is now 

 merged into the beach. The sweep of the curve towards 

 Long Reef is interrupted by the intrusion of a bluff, on 

 whose rocky escarpment the trailing stems of Kenneclya 

 rubicunda Vent., and the "Egyptian Bind- weed," Ipomcea 

 palmat a F or sk., are interlaced. The latter is theConvolvulns 

 cairicus of Linnaeus, a dedication (specific) to the ancient 

 city of Gairo, where it has been cultivated for many cen- 

 turies. Though a trailer on the rocky escarpment, it does not 

 descend to the dune, it is normally a climber. In a paper 

 on the "Mora of Norfolk Island," 1 Mr. J. H. Maiden says: 



1 Proc. Line. Soc. N. S. Wales, Vol. xxviii. p. 692. 



