A BOTANIZING EXPEDITION TO WEST AUSTRALIA. 



287 



Although the plants were more attractive, we thought it advisable 

 to pacify the cave guides at once, and so immediately after lunch we 

 set off with them to see the great limestone caves. These are a 

 wonderful sight and well worth a visit; the caves are lighted by 

 electricity and shown to the best advantage. The stalactites are 

 exceptionally fine in these caves, which are ■ very large, and only 

 rivalled by the Jenolan Caves in the Blue Mountains in New South 

 Wales, which I saw on a former occasion. 



Early the next morning we went down the ravine to the seashore. 

 At the mouth of it is a sand-dune on which grow stunted Melaleuca 

 and the sea-grass Spinifex longifolms, while on the back of the dune 

 grows a shrub about three to four feet tall with a foliage rather like 

 Correa virens, but with a pendulous orange and red flower ; it was 

 pretty as well as curious, and the flower when crushed gave out a very 

 unpleasant pungent odour. I believe the plant to be Diplolaena 

 Dampieri. There were some magnificent Xanthorrhoeas (Black boys) 

 in this ravine. 



We stayed at the Cave House two more days and busied ourselves 

 exploring the country all round as well as visiting Cape Naturaliste 

 itself. I hoped to come across Nageia (Podocarpus) Drouyniana, one 

 of the few Taxads which exist in this part of West Australia. It is 

 usually a small shrub, and is chiefly of botanical interest. It grows in 

 isolated patches about this district, but I did not obtain specimens until 

 T returned to Busselton, where it was growing about four miles from 

 the back of the township. All round the Cave House and south towards 

 the Margaret Eiver is an excellent place for collecting ; the species are 

 very numerous and present a gorgeous sight when all in flower as we 

 saw them. Banksia grandis (fig. 92) is especially fine, and so is 

 B. attenuata (fig. 93) ; then there was a fine holly-leaved Dryandra, 

 which was very striking, and several species of Boronia, and species of 

 Tetratheca with both pink and white flowers. Ferns are only very 

 poorly represented in West Australia ; their place is taken by species of 

 Macrozamia, XanthorrJioea (fig. 91), and Kingia (fig. 94), the first two 

 being very abundant. 



I obtained a large number of the Macrozamia nuts. They are oval 

 pebble-like seeds and very heavy ; as a rule the fruit is borne close to the 

 ground near the centre and crown of the plant, which possesses a won- 

 derful mecTianism for discharging them and can hurl them quite twelve 

 feet. In one particular instance which I remember, I was most alarmed 

 by a discharge, and thought I must have offended a forest of monkeys 

 at least, until looking about me I found no monkeys, but that the real 

 cause was Macrozamia ; the farthest nut I found in this instance was 

 fifteen feet away. 



The next day we set off on ponies to visit the lighthouse at Cape 

 Naturaliste and examine the district as we went. We followed the 

 track which leads to the lighthouse, distant about fifteen miles from 

 the Yallingup Cave House. Every yard almost disclosed more flower- 

 ing plants; the Leguminous plants are very lovely, especially the 



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