THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST. 141 
confrere the giant Sword-rush Gahnia psittacorum, by the stem 
Jeaves, which in C. jamaicense are produced in tufts. The float- 
ing Panic-grass, Panicum obseptum, sends out long trails from 
the bank into the shallow water and the Water-Pepper forms 
Jax colonies on the boundary of the Bull-rush formation. The ~ 
sour, il-drained and imperfectly aerated soil of the shale flats 
through which the river winds is clothed with a shrubby vegeta- 
tion represented chiefly by the family Myrtaceae, sprinkled with 
bushes of the Black-thorn, Bursaria spinosa. The undergrowth 
consists largely of grasses, sedges and lowly herbs interspersed 
with mosses and other cryptogams. Of the shrubs, Tea-trees 
Melaleuca spp., and Bottle-brushes, (allistemon spp., predomin- 
ate, the greenish flowered C. pinifolius being well represented. 
The- dominant grass at this season (February) is Eragrostis 
leptostachya, one of the Love-grasses; and among the herbs 
noted were the rare, diminutive Logania pusilla, Comesperma 
sphaerocarpum, Caesia parviflora, Ruellia australis, Lagenophora 
Billardieri, L. emphysopus, Vittadinia australis, Hypoxis hygro- 
metrica, Boroma polygalifolia, Convolvulus erubescens—pros- 
trate and closely appressed to the ground—Goodenia paniculata 
—in moist places—Richardsonia humistrata, an immigrant from 
South America, with a star-shaped leaf arrangement, which 
forms clustered mats. A floriferous carpet of Isotoma fluviatilis 
was noted in its usual habitat on the verge of a pool, and the 
aquatic Ottelia ovalifolia was occasionally in deeper water. 
A. A. Haminron. 
EXCURSION TO BROOKVALE. 
On Saturday, March 6, a party of about 20 members and 
their friends went to Brookvale for the ordinary monthly ex- 
cursion, under the leadership of Mr. E. Cheel. 
The leader took them towards the ocean beach in the neigh- 
bourhood of the local rifle butts, where several interesting 
plants were collected. 
Not far from the village, a halt was made to examine the 
plants in a grass plot through which a watercourse was run- 
ning, and specimens of Azolla, Juncus prismatocarpus, Juncus 
lamprocarpus, Panicum crus-galli (Barnyard grass), and Poly- 
gonum hydropiper (Water-pepper), and several other species 
were examined and explained by the leader. Several plants of 
the pretty pink “Australian Ladies’ Traces” orchid (Spiranthes 
Australis) and other naturalised plants were found in damp 
grass plots. 
