16 - THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST, 
reached a height of 15 to 18 feet (it does not usually at- 
tain a height of more than 7 or 8 feet), which he saw at 
the top of Tallong Waterfall. In common with many of 
our ‘‘Wattles,’’ it is specially subject to the depredations 
of ‘‘Borers.’’ Another character which it has in common 
with the ‘“Wattle’’ is the exudation of gum, which flows 
copiously if the plant is wounded. The seeds germinate 
freely if sown while fresh, but the seedlings are some- 
what delicate, and require a little extra nursing in the 
adolescent stage. Mature plants are hardy in the Port 
Jackson district. 
Ophioglossum vulgatum, Bauhin. ‘‘ Adder’s Tongue.’’— 
A somewhat ambiguous fern, with very dissimilar fertile 
and barren fronds. The former has a resemblance to the 
flowering spike of a sedge, though an examination of the 
sporangia on the top of the spike would soon make that 
delusion untenable. The latter has the appearance of the 
phanerogamic leaf of a monocotyledon, but its reticulate 
venation, as opposed to the parallel veining of a ‘‘Mono- 
cot,”’ or the forked or anastomosing veins of most ferns, is 
characteristic of a dicotyledonus leaf. It is a cosmopoli- 
tan fern, found in most temperate countries, including 
Britain, where it is well known to naturalists. The speci- 
mens exhibited were collected at Lilyvale (Illawarra) 
about fifteen years ago, when one could find some geven- 
teen species of ferns within a radius of fifty yards of the 
railway station. This rich gully is now practically domin- 
ated by the all-conquering ‘‘Blackberry.’’ 
Acianthus caudatus, R.Br. ‘‘Spider Orchid.’’—Fitzger- 
ald, in his “‘Australian Orchids,’’ says, this species, 
when it grows near the coast, is found in damp fissures of 
the rocks. The writer’s experience is somewhat different, 
he having found it in two places in the Port Jackson dis- 
trict, viz., Lane Cove and Cooks River, and on each occa- 
sion, it was growing on flat land some distance from the 
rocks. In the latter place, it was found in stiff, clayey 
soil on the plateau lying between Cooks River and Wollii 
Creek, in the shade of a patch of ‘‘Tea-tree’’ Melaleuca 
nodosa, a shrub for whose xgis many of our terrestrial 
orchids exhibit a pronounced partiality. In Tasmania, ac- 
cording to Hooker, it grows in moist, shady woods. 
Helichrysum leucopsidium, D.C.—Along the branch 
line which runs from Newnes Junction into the Wolgan 
Valley, what appeared to be two distinct forms of this 
showy white ‘‘Everlasting’’ were noticed. One, an open 
spreading shrubby plant, about two feet high, the leaves 
