Page:Sea and River-side Rambles in Victoria.djvu/41

22 Walking around the Lagoon, which is now nearly dried up, we collect shells of the Cyclas, Nassa, and Truncatella, and we also discover here a rare Diatom, Meloseira nummuloides; towards the Merri River we find Ruppia maritima, (Tassel grass,) and the Brookweed, Samolus littoralis, a small white flower ever so slightly tinted with pink on a slender rigid stem. Passing near the Jetty, where are dense beds of the beautiful spathulate-leaved blue flowered Scævola suaveolens, we wander over the low sand hummocks which are so conspicuous a feature here; keeping all the way in sight of the sea, we observe the shrubby Pimelea serpyllifolia flourishing all along their ridge, and the gay scarlet flowering Kennedya, forming a gorgeous carpet, with here and there the flesh-tinted Caladenia, with its long lance-shaped leaf. Resting awhile to inhale the exhilarating breezes so tantalisingly appetising, which are wafted in from the ocean, we remember that we must take the track over the hill, to obtain two plants of interest, which we saw blooming there many seasons back without at the time gathering specimens,—the one is the blue, leafless, waxy-looking Lobelia gibbosa, the other (and its abundance in this spot will prevent any doubt in identifying it) the Gentiana montana, which has delicate white or straw colored, corollas, beautifully veined with blue of the palest imaginable tint. These secured, we clamber over the steep hill, passing by numerous deep holes, concealed almost by the thick bushes of the wild Raspberry, the Forget-me-not, and other of our indigenous plants;—they are the burrows of that uncouth creature, the Wombat, which is very