Thg South Australian Naturalist. 
53 
A NOVExMBER DAY IN THE MOUNT LOFTIES. 
Early November, the air warm, bright, balmy, with a tang 
of the scrub, made up of a faint odour of tea tree and eucalyptus, 
with a whiff of the native pine in it. Everywhere a light mantle 
of white, the silky tea tree (Leptospermum myrsinoides) — its 
relative (L. scoparium) will not be out for two or three weeks 
yet. Here and there the scrub is covered with the white blossoms, 
producing in the distance just the effect of a light snow-fall. This 
is added to by the spikes of “Eye-bright” (Euphrasia Brownii or 
Colima of the botanists), both typical of the worn down quartzite 
soils. On the rises and where the ground is drier and the drain- 
age better, the beautiful white everlasting with yellow centre 
(Helichrysuvi Baxteri) is found in profusion. This is the mallee 
everlasting, in earlier days to be found covering many thousands 
of acres now given over to fallow, grass, and wheat, it is evident 
that white is the fashion at this time of the year. At other times 
the prevailing colour is yellow, and there are great masses of 
golden flowers here still, though the golden watltes have shed their 
fluffy stamens and have only greenish-yellow pods to show. Yel- 
lowy everlastings take a second place now. One tires so soon of 
white! Let us look for blue. Ah! here we find the beautiful 
blue of the Dampiera. This is D. rosmarinifolia, its foliage like 
that of the_ rosemary. can pick and pick at this, there is 
plenty and it bears cutting so ^vell. The buds will open in water 
and you have a succession of the beautiful blue blossoms. Then 
m the bushes^ and betw'een them In sheltered places one finds the 
^ hand-flower,” Cheir anther a, the most showy of all our blue 
native flowers. Look at the goldmt hand in its centre like a little 
go\e with four fingers and distinct thumb, beautiful certainlv. 
And here is another blue flower, a pale- 
blue bell on a long twining stem, which climbs over and round 
and through the bushes to lift its pretty blue bells to the licht 
and attract whatper insects its blossoms require for their polleni- 
sation, wdiich being duly^ accomplished, the plant will forthwith 
produce its_ dumpling fruits, small but wdth a daintiness of their 
owui, for this IS the climbing variety of Billardiera, B. cymosa, or 
^ our 
Sh with standing eighteen inches 
High with fifteen dainty blue flowers, each enclosing the queer- 
n a little time there will be many scores of these dainty spikes of 
S whn^T'^'''n-P"' panicular in- 
whose taste (like mine) leads it to prefer blue. These orchids 
