140 THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST. 
brown, and almost globular. The branchlets are slender, the 
rudimentary leaves in whorls of nine. The native name, so [ 
was given to understand, is “Currewang.” On the shores of 
Lake Albert I was fortunate enough to find another specimen 
of this tree, the lower. branches of which were covered with 
Loranthus linophyllus, the bright red flowers contrasting with 
the dark foliage of the host. As the leaves of this mistletoe 
are not unlike the branches of the Casuarina, the general 
effect was of a flowering tree. 
EXCURSION TO DUCK RIVER. 
Fifteen members of the Society essayed the journey. Sev- 
eral plants representative of the flora of the Western Plains 
were noted on the route from Auburn to the river, which have 
probably been disseminated by the stock in the resting pad- 
docks awaiting the sales at Flemington. Two of these were 
Composites, both known in the West as Bindy-eyes (Calotis 
cuneifolia (blue) and C. lappulacea (yellow). ‘The seeds 
(achenes) of these plants are armed with barbed bristles, which 
are caught in the coats of animals, and thus dispersed. A 
western Salt-bush, Rhagodia nutans, which bears bright red suc- 
culent berries, and a healthy vine of the indigenous Paddy- 
melon, Cucumis trigonus, with gooseberry-like fruits, were also 
seen. A few bushes of a feathery-leaved (pinnate) Wattle, 
Acacia pubescens, which favours the Wianamatta shale in this 
district have found a sanctuary within the railway fence. This 
species is rapidly disappearing owing to its inability to set 
fruits. On the banks of Duck River the shrubby Angophora 
Bakeri is plentiful, and a tussocky plant of the rough-leaved 
Gahnia aspera displayed a quantity of bright red-bead-like 
fruits hanging from the glumes by the staminal filaments. In 
the river the dominant species is the Bull-rush, Typha angusti- 
folia, the tall Heleocharis sphacelata, intermingled with Triglo- 
chin procera, also forming presentable reed beds. The leafy 
fronds of the Nardoo, Marsilea Drummondii, which are divided 
into four segments in the form of a Maltese cross, float hori- 
zontally on the surface, and fill the interstices in the open 
ranks of the Bull-rushes. A tall and somewhat rare Sedge, 
Cladium jamaicense (Gahnia mariscus) was: observed in fruit on 
the river margin. This sedge is easily distinguished from its 
