66 
NATURE NOTES 
zine, ard this paper will, I feel sure, be read with keen interest 
in England. — H. Stuart Dove.] 
It has been suggested to me that your readers might be 
interested in some natural history notes on a journey which I 
have just completed from Port Darwin in the north, through 
Central Australia to Adelaide in the south. The journey, 
which was on horseback and driving, took ten weeks, and 
the distance traversed from railway to railway, 1,300 miles. 
Including the telegraph offices, I was only able to camp under 
a roof ten times. The journey was intensely interesting, the 
geological formations being in many places peculiar, and the 
trees and flowers to a large extent not found in other parts 
of Australia. I can only in the short space at my disposal 
give a few brief disjointed notes. Among the flowers I was 
especially struck by the red Calythrix bush which blooms beauti- 
fully in their poor soil to the north and the large red everlast- 
ings which carpet acres of ground on the ridges and afford good 
feed for the cattle and horses. There are no less than four 
fine scarlet flowered trees with edible beans, one of which, 
Erythrina vespertilio, is remarkable for its cruciform flower 
stems and curiously shaped leaves. Another, the name of 
which I do not know, strongly resembles, at a little distance, 
the Pyrus japonica, but the surface of the petals is covered 
with fine filaments. The red Loranthus, a kind of mistletoe, 
covers the “ mulga ” trees in places with huge nests of pale 
green and red, and there is a fine holly growing on the Ash- 
burton Ranges with a leguminous flower [Chorizema ?). The 
red of the various flowering trees is relieved by the brilliant 
yellow of the “cotton-tree” (Cyclosperiiium), and in the sandy 
deserts the ground is covered with the beautiful pink flower of 
the Paratsyllia (?) the juicy leaves of which will support cattle for 
months without water. In what is known as the fifty-mile 
desert, I found the whole ground covered with the dark green 
glossy leaves of the wild yam, to obtain which the natives dig 
countless little holes about two feet deep. They store the yams 
in mounds covered with sand. One of the most striking flowers 
I found at Powell’s Creek, where it grew in profusion, the 
Crotalaria Cunninghami. The brilliantly green blossoms give 
it a most uncommon appearance. Spinifex or porcupine grass 
grows everywhere, even in pure desert sand. Stock will eat it 
when young enough. 
It is curious to note how the vegetation adapts itself to the 
rainfall. At “ Alice Springs,” just in the centre of Australia, the 
annual rainfall is some six inches, and the grass after a fair fall 
of rain will last for two years. 
A very magnificent red water-lily grows in the swamps about 
thirty miles from the Elsey Station, but unfortunately I was not 
able to visit them. The roots of the various water-lilies form 
the chief food of the blacks. At Alice Springs they grind 
