THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST Bilt: 
mum aequilaterale, aw. (which refers us to the fact that its 
flowers open best on a sunny day), have grown succulent 
leaves, stems, and even fruits, containing cells which act 
as reservoirs for storing water. This provision has been 
made to enable the plants to maintain their equipoise, and 
neutralise the effects of a hot wind, or other drying factor, 
which would deplete them of moisture more rapidly than 
they could assimilate it, as the strand water contains a 
large percentage of sodium chloride, which is taken up 
in solution by the ascending liquid, and if absorbed in too 
great a quantity, acts injuriously on the health of the 
plant, which, as a consequence, must imbibe its liquor dis- 
creetly. When grown in a loose permeable soil, at a dis- 
tance from the beach, and treated to a liberal ration of 
manure, it produces a profusion of handsome flower spikes, 
which stand up well above the foliage, and are reminis- 
cent both in the arrangement and the delicate hue of its 
flowers of the introduced ornamental aquatic plant, which 
has become a pest on the Northern Rivers, the ‘‘Water 
Hyacinth,’’ Hichornia speciosa, Kunth. The flowers are 
followed in due season by shining-coated, succulent, purple 
berries, very little inferior for ornamental purposes to the 
flowers. The name of this plant is not particularly well 
chosen, as Scaeva means the left hand, to which an ob- 
scure resemblance is found in the corolla. Swaveolens 
(sweet-scented) is an improvement, though the perfume 
is almost overpowered by the marine odour prevalent on 
the beach. Seeds germinate readily, and the resultant 
plants are amenable to ordinary garden treatment, 
OLEARIA MyrsrnNorpgs, Fr. W., ‘‘A Musk Aster.’??—Oui 
Australian vegetation is exceptionally liable to variation, 
owing largely to the numerous and frequently sudden 
changes in the environmental conditions encountered with- 
in a limited area. In some instances there is also an in- 
herent tendency to diverge from the typical form, and 
build up new varieties and species, though the plants may 
be growing in company, under apparently similar environ- 
mental conditions. The most. notable offenders in respect 
of these spontaneous alterations of structure are to be 
found, as the name indicates, in the Family Proteaceae. 
When growing in its usual habitat on the impoverished _ 
Hawkesbury sandstone, our “‘ Aster’? is a straggling shrub 
of 1 to 114% feet, with small sclerophyllous leaves, which 
