a 
ih tl 
THE AUSTRALIAN ~NATURALIST, 15 
side. After this, the column broke, and made its: way with- 
out order in two and threes, or singly, to a corner where 
they formed a heap and camped all night. 
When on the march, all follow the leader, even to 
climbing obstacles which, by. a very slight divergence, could 
be avoided. They leave a web trail on the ground: over 
which they pass. It is a matter to wonder over how the 
leader knows he is first, and the last that he is the end, 
for the leader does not wait for another to precede him, and 
the last does not seem to require the stimulus of a follower. 
These hairy caterpillars demonstrate very well the 
phenomenon that moulting larvae shed the skin of the hairs 
as well as that of the body. Another unique habit of this 
species is that, in May, they burrow beneath the soil and 
hibernate without pupating till August, when they wake 
up and proceed at once to spin a web cocoon, into which 
are incorporated the hairs of their bodies, and soil. They 
hatch in October. 
MISCELLANEOUS BOTANICAL NOTES, 
AUGUST, 1913. 
By A. A. Hamilton. 
Jacksonia scoparia, R.Br.—An ornamental shrub, with a 
wealth of golden Pea-blossoms on pendulus branchlets, the 
leaves usually reduced to minute distant scales, though oc- 
easionally developed, especially in the juvenile stages of 
growth. When not in flower or fruit, it might easily be 
mistaken for the local swamp-growing Viminaria denudata, 
another apparently leafless subject, though in this case the 
leaves are represented by long, slender petioles (as in some 
of our teretely phylloded Acacias), a demonstration -of 
which is afforded after a bush fire has run through a patch 
of these plants, the young growth being plentifully fur- 
nished with true leaves, which degenerate as the plant 
ages. The short, black, turgid pod of Viminaria, however, 
effectually differentiates this species from Jacksonia, with 
its silky-villous, elongated fruits, which are effective in 
maintaining the attractiveness of the plant long after the 
flowers have fallen. A fine stretch of this species (J. 
scoparia) may be seen creeping up the ‘“‘Lapstone’’ from 
Emu Plains on either side of the railway line. The 
writer, when on a botanical expedition from Barber’s 
Creek to Nowra, via the Kangaroo Valley, in J899, has.a 
recollection of a group, individual specimens of which 
