174 THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST 
have on their under-surface closely appressed hairs at- 
tached by the centre; those of the young leaves reddish, 
changing in the older ones to a dark brown. These charac- 
ters, the coarse leathery epidermis of the small wrinkled 
leaves, and stunted growth of the plant, together with its 
shabby, faded vestiture, are palpable evidence to the most 
superficial observer of a desperate struggle for existence 
under adverse circumstances. In a moist gully at Mount 
Victoria, under the shadow of Mount Piddington, growing 
among the accumulated debris of leaf-mould and decay- 
ing vegetable matter, a rich deposit washed down by the 
mountain stream, several plants of this species were 
noted, whose general appearance was so different to that 
of the normal shrubs, that it was not until they had passed 
a searching examination, with the aid of a descriptive 
work and a powerful lens, that they were satisfactorily 
established as luxuriant members of the same species, for 
the plants reached 4ft. in height, and had comparatively 
large, broad, soft leaves, with a vestiture of shimmering 
silvery hairs, whose **Pile’’ the silk velvet manutacturer 
might seek in vain to imitate. There is strong presump- 
tive evidence that it would not require a lengthy sojourn 
in such an environment for these characters to become so 
fixed as to eventually evolve a distinct species. The Tas- 
imanian representative of our plant, as figured in Labil- 
lardiere’s Plante Nove Hollandix, is smaller and more 
rugged than our Blue Mountain form, a condition for 
which the rigorous climate is no doubt responsible. It was 
noted that in the smaller (Tasmanian) specimens the 
leaves had no stalks (sessile), in the rough mountain form 
the leaf-stalks (petioles) were barely one line long, while 
in the large form the leaves are pendant on stalks half an 
inch long, 
CASSINIAS FROM COOK’S RIVER. 
By A. A. Hamilton. 
Almost within the proverbial stone’s throw of each 
other, in the neighbourhood of Cook’s River, a locality 
richly endewed botanically, no less than four Cassinias 
’ 
may still be collected, viz., C. longifolia, C. aurea, C. 
aculeata, and C. quinguefaria, for the authorship of which 
