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THE GEELONG NATURALIST. 32. 
Patersont) and the “ Tongue Orchid" (Glossodia major) are 
perhaps the most remarkable and beautiful, but all alike are 
pleasing and acceptable to the true lover of flowers. Some 
seven or eight members of the Lily family also adorn the 
wild garden—whose real beauty, untouched by the hand of 
man, consists ina series of charming combinations of form 
and colour. The violet, purple and lilac shades of the 
“ Fringe” and “ Grass Lilies” —Thysanotus, and Dichopogon; the 
brilliant royal blue of Casias and Chamescilla ; the white starry 
blossoms of the ** Native Snowdrop” (Anguillaria) and the 
« Australian Colchicum ” (Burchardia); and the golden yellow 
of the Bulbine; these, added to many of the floral gems 
referred to in preceding families, found amidst the nest-like 
thickets of dwarf shrubbery, or embedded in the verdure of 
grass or sombre green rush, paint the scene with a wealth of 
Nature's colouring, which art, with allits resources, can but 
vainly try to imitate. The Rush family itself (Juncacew), with 
its half-dozen species, divided between Juncus, Gahnia, and 
Xerotes, and the ubiquitous * Resin grass tree" (Xanthorrhaw 
australis), lend a peculiar grace and beauty to many a spot. 
The tall stalks of the ** Parrot Rush" and “ Black Reed” 
(species of Gahnia) are useful for decorative purposes. 
The “Native Bull-rush” or “ Cat’s Tail,” of the order 
Typhacee, and the Common Reed (Phragmites) attain a height 
of at least 12 feet at Reedy Creek, near Lake Connewarre. 
From the leaves of the Typha a valuable fibre has been ex- 
tracted in the Laboratory of the Melbourne Botanical 
Gardens. The Phragmites belong to the Grass family, which, 
including also the Spinifex of the coast sands, numbers 16 
species indigenous and introduced. 
Verns are not apparently in great variety, but other than 
those enumerated are probably known to exist in the district. 
But, oh, for the ** Flowers of the Sea," there is indeed no 
scarcity of these. A hundred varieties at least, of sea weeds 
delicately beautiful in form, and rich and varied in tints of 
colour, can at times be gathered during a ramble along the 
beach at Ocean Grove, although perhaps the greater quantity 
of éach may be found at the mouth of the Barwon river. 
“ Full many a gem of purest ray serene, 
The dark unfathomed caves of Ocean bear." 
