THE TASMANIAN NATURALIST

A Bush Ramble
I went a very interesting walk on a
recent Saturday up Lenah Valley, and
turned up a new road that has been
made towards Glenorchy. I went for
about a mile and a and found on
the wav the following plants of interest.
Ii"iretly' there was the beaut.iful silver
wattle (Acacia dealhater) in great profu-
sion the bloomS! were at their best. It
i, the bestknown of all tI,e wattles. The
prickly wattle (Acacia verticillata)
just coming out, and win soon be Hower-
iug weiI. The black wattle I only 8.1.W
one tree of, and, of course. it is not flow-
Ning. but it will be a picture, all
we11, in December. The myrtle-leaved
wattle was also flowering well, also the
plough-shaped leaved wattle (Acacia
\'omeriformis) was growing well and flow-
ering nice1y. It only grows about one
foot high. and it iB very pretty with the.
halls of flowers here and there along the
stem. Acacia diffusll was also making a
\'el'y fine show of flowers, all of these
having been written about in a previous
issue.
The wild cherry. or nath'e cherry (Exo-
carlJllR is \-ery plentiful in
that part. It has a yery smaII flower .)f
:t cream color, which later on developB
into the well-known fruit of a 10ngish
with the seed at the far end, and
on the outside of the fruit. This is
to eat, and when I was mueh young
er I was able to pick enough of this
fruit to make into jam. The ja,m thus
made was very nice, though it would have
been hetter if as much water as fruit
had been used. as it was very stiff and
candy-like. This kind of tree does not
grow easily in the open or if transplant-
ed, though one will often be seen in the
open, through being left when clea!'ing
the land. The foliage is something like
a cypress, and in color it is of a gol1:.m
olive green. Another interesting plant
is the Pultenaea daphnoides, with its
leaves something like a shield, with the
big end furthest away from the
and in the centre of the large end is a
sharp point. It will be flowering with
a br.ight yellow pea-shaped flower about
the end of October. It grow. up to W
feet or more under good conditions. The
flowers are mostly in a dense terminal
heMl. This plant is to be found in
very many places in Tasmania. The
is a pod, and therefore it belongs to th.?
family Leguminosae, as do aU the A<.>a-
sias. Another of the same family is
(13)
the Hovea heterophylla. It has a
pretty blue pea-shoped flower, and only
grows a few inches high, the leaves be
lUg up to neady an inch long. It is
flowering now, and wilI he found in
dry, poor 1and. Another of the
jfti\mBy in flower at the present time IH
the Daviesia alicina. or. as it is some-
times called, nath-e gorse. "\vhich iF; rathet
a good name, as it is coyered with yery
fharp prickles of various lengths, and
would be \'en harder to get throl1gh thaJl
the imported variety of gorse. The
tio\.vers are very many. smaH, pea-shap-
ed. and a bright yellow. Thif.: plallt
grows up to three or four feet in height.
There was also the black cutting graSFi
(Gahma radu]a) in small lots. This cut-
ting graf3S is only a small variety. The
leaves are long and the edges are like a
sa w. The teeth along the edges of the
Jeu
1
lS are and would cut
deeply int-O the hand if drlt'wn carelessly
along them. Another plan-t, or tree, is
the banksia. It grows into a fair-sized
tree, and has pretty sweet-scented yel-
low flowers, shaped like a bottle brush.
It belongs to the family Proteaceae, when
large enough in the tree the timber from
it is very finely figured, although pieces
df timber from it are never very large.
The bracken fern is also growing weB,
though the land is poor. Bracken fern
(Pteris aquiHna) grows from a root
whieh has a trailing habit under
the ground, and sends up fronds every
here and t"here. In good, rich ground
this fern grows up to nine and ten feet
high. In poor ground it is stunted its
wings are spread like an eagle, it
gets its descriptive name.
Of the eucalyptus family, the Eucalyp-
tus obliqUd, or "stringy bark," known
when cut into timber and seasoned as
Tasmanian oak, was only growing in
small trees in this district. There were
alBo small glue gum. (Eucalyptus globu-
las), which is BO wen-known everywhere;
also Eucalyptus viminoliis, the white
This particular variety'"s infant, or
jllUlOf leaves, especially after a tree ha,s
been cut, are. of a wedge shape, and set
OPPOSIte on the stems; their color
18 a green tinged with red. These trees
when grown show very pretty markings
and colorings in bark; a.Jso the
Amydabna, or peppermint, is
grOWIng well. Among the orchids we
fou.ud. Diuris sUlphurea, or dragon's head.
Thl8 18 a vet'y fine and beautiful orchid
THE TASMANIAN NATURALIST
of a bright yellow calor and brown spots.
It has several flowers on a stem, and is
like a monkey-face, or some-
thing like a skull. Another was a
Pterostylis, one of the green helmet Of-
chids without horns. Both of these were
fairly plentiful. Goodenia Qvata, some-
times called parrots' food, is to be found
there also, but it is not yet in flower.
It has a flower something like a pansy.
and bright yellow in color, and this va-
riety will grow up to a'bout fifteen feet
high. DogwoodI'! were also growing at
the beginning of the walk; Pomaderris
elliptiea, also Pomaderris apeta,Jo. Thesf"
dogwoods will grow (when in good soil
and dense forest, such as at National
Park) very tall and straight, and some'
times called in various places pear.
This walk will be found very interest
ing to anyone who is at all a lover of
Nature, and as the spring advances to-
wards summer, the Eucalyptus trees, with
the- young leaves on them, which are of
a red and. yellow col or, are a magnificent
sight. One can imagine all the eolol's
of the rainbow when looking up at the
side of one of the hill. which are covered
with them. The whole distance was not
more than two miles from thfl E'ud of the
Leuah YaIlej' tram line.
J, C, Breaden.
Milligania Lindoniana.
Long years ago in the history of this
State, Whf'll the outskirts of civilisation
were mainly populated by men who had
left theil' c:ountry for their country's
the authorities of the day thought
It would be an excellent measure to form
a natural detention area for really bad
characters by locating them in apparently
inaccessible centres in the wild West
Coast. l\laequarie Ha.rhor was chosen for
reasons which do not concern us at pre-
sent. There were many good and able
men associated with this undertaking;
perhaps none more so than Dr. Milligan.
This worthy doctor did much to store
up knowledge of many SOl'UJ in the inter-
est of those who should come after him.
One of the excellent things which he
dId was to make a collection of the
strange plants he came across in his
rambles. He submitted his collection
to experts, among whom was Sir J.
The collection contained. be-
. I.nany o.thers, Borne very interest-
IIlg lilies. whICh differed from any other
of this family. Hooker. in re-
cogmbon of the work done for science bv
Milligan, did him the posthumous hono'r
of naming the group Milligania.
The Milligani'as have a wide distri-
bution from Cradle :Mountain, Lake St.
(14)
CI'air, and. Hartz Mouutains on the east
right to the coast on the 'vest. A few
years ago .Mrs. Lindon, whom it would
be diffi,cult to surpass as a chrewd col-
lector, gathered on the high slopes of
Cradle and Burn Bluti' ranges a Milli-
ganin Lindoniana. new to botanists aud
whieh shou1d receive the specific Bume
accordingly. The distincti:on of this
from the) c'Ommoner form is 5Ilight,
but fra,irly eonsistent; it is smal1er.
the indllmentum on the unuer
surface of the leaf more closely op-
pressed, the pe-rianth lobes are narrower
and more aente. and the pistil is triquet-
rous instead of being almost Bpherical. It
is always 'U matter of opinion what 8hon1.1
be the amount of distinction to warrant
a form being considered a speeies. As
this is largely arbitrary and more a mat-
ter of convenience than a scientific fact.
botanists of tell disagree on this point.
The pla.nt we are considering -is vel'\'
little removed from )I.i11igania
but in the field its appearanl'e ir;
tinct. 130 it convenient that it .,hnuld
hun> a namp.
L, Rodway,