Twenty 
THE SOUTH AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST December, 1952 
METEORIC CRATER-NATIVE LEGEND 
Professor Cleland has forwarded 
the following extract from “Nom- 
enclature of South Australia” by 
Rodney Cockburn (1908), p. 66 It 
is part of a letter to the Editor of 
the “Adelaide Register, Observer 
and Evening Journal,” under the 
title, “Marvels of Euphony.” In 
view of the hypothesis it is a pity 
that no one has followed up the 
suggestion made therein. 
“In times gone by an old woman 
(Uryoola) indulged rather freely 
in ‘bilta,’ the fruit of the mesem- 
bryanthemum. In consequence she 
had a pain in her ‘pinnie.’ She 
climbed to the top of a prominent 
hill, and relief came to her in a 
great effort of Nature. The mighty 
blast rent a great semi-circular gap 
in the northern aspect of the hill, 
sending great boulders and lumps 
of chalk and gypsum to the plain 
in a mixed up head of desolation, 
and the place is known unto this 
day as Uryloo-labaldiun-ganoo. 
How startled the old lady must 
have been. Conceive the ‘There- 
i’ve-been-and-gone-and-done-it’ sort 
of feeling with which she must 
have regarded the stupendous cata- 
strophe, the result of her over- 
indulgence in bilta. Yet all this 
interesting if primitive piece of 
geological tradition, with its excel 
lent moral inclucating abstemious- 
ness, is lost under a small triangle 
with a dot in centre, branded 
on our plans Mount Purvis, in 
memory no doubt of some estim- 
able but probably prosaic gentle- 
man. 
I am, Sir, etc., 
MOODLOOWARDOO. ’ 
(Editor's note: The Surveyor-general 
has kindly supplied the following infor- 
mation. Mt. Purvis is situated on the 
Anna Creek Pastoral Run which is 
approximately 120 miles south of Oodna- 
datta. The mountain is approximately 50 
miles due west of Coward Spring Railway 
station. 
WEEPING FORM OF 
A glance through overseas horti- 
cultural literature usually reveals 
that plant spp. long cultivated 
have produced numerous “sports.” 
These are vegetatively propagated 
and grown in gardens. A genus 
which immediately comes to mind 
is Chamaecy parrs Lawsomana — 
the common Lawson Cypress, of 
which there are innumerable habit 
and foliage forms. 
Over the years a number of 
weeping forms of various Euca- 
lyptus species have been noted, and 
it is a pity that more efforts have 
not been made to perpetuate these 
EUCALYPTUS SPECIES 
“witches brooms;” for Eucalyptus 
is notoriously difficult to propagate 
vegetatively. In Victoria E. poly- 
anthemos and E. obliqua fre- 
quently produce limbs which are 
pendulous, looking very much like 
mistletoe growths. 
In South Australia, E camaul- 
densis (E. rostrata), River Red 
Gum, sometimes shows this vari- 
ant, the most notable being seen in 
a tree alongside the dairy factory 
at Gumeracha. This tree is over 
70 feet high and has the typical 
umbrageous spread of this species. 
Continued on page 30. 
