58 Exciiysion to Stiidley Park, Kew. [vd'"^xxxvi 



EXCURSION TO STUDLEY PARK, KEW. 



Quite a large party assembled for the outing to Studio}- Park, 

 Kew, on Saturday, 17th May, and, though listed for the study 

 of eucalypts, the Park, covering rather more than 200 acres, 

 and possessing about four miles of river frontage, offers so 

 many opportunities to the naturalist that it was hard to keep 

 the attention of the twenty-five or so who attended directed 

 to the object of the afternoon. Near the meeting-place at 

 Johnston-street bridge the contorted Ordovician strata exposed 

 along the roadway leading to the pumping station first attracted 

 attention. Ascending to the high ridge overlooking Dight's 

 Falls, the fine view of the city was greatly admired, and 

 attention was called to the fact that, as occasionally chipped 

 stones may be picked up there, at one time the aboriginals 

 probably frequented it when on fishing excursions to the neigh- 

 bouring Yarra, and in support of the fact one of the party 

 secured a characteristic flake. Descending the pathway towards 

 the boat-houses, specimens of Eucalyptus Icucoxylon, the Yellow 

 Gum, were pointed out encroaching on the territory of the 

 River Red Gum, E. rostrata, which delights in river flats with 

 deep soil. Several old Yellow Gums were of exceptional 

 interest, for from the convex side of their bent trunks the 

 bark had been removed scores of years ago by the natives in 

 order to construct canoes. Though the Yellow Gum here is 

 a somewhat crooked, straggling tree, in the Western District, 

 where it has been cultivated by the Forest Department, it 

 provides fine, straight stems, suitable for telegraph poles, &c. 

 We then followed up a little valley, and soon left the riverside 

 vegetation behind, getting among the Manna Gums, E. 

 viminalis, the Swamp Gums, E. ovata, and the Yellow Box- 

 Gum, E. melliodora. Here a little time was spent in noting 

 the differences in the juvenile and adult foliage of the three 

 species. Near the top of the ridge was seen a young Yellow 

 Gum struggling for existence. It had been truncated some 

 years ago at about ten feet from the ground, a few inches above 

 a point where a mistletoe (Loranthus) had established itself ; 

 this was balanced on the opposite side of the trunk by an equal 

 quantity of branchlets bearing " reversionary " foliage. At the 

 time of our visit this latter had survived and the parasite 

 was quite dead. Not far from this, and nearer to Studley 

 Park-road, there is an old Yellow Box, about four feet in 

 stem diameter and some tliirty feet liigh. Tliis tree forks into 

 rather large limbs at ten feet from tlie ground, and growing 

 from a cavity in the fork is a healthy specimen of the Light- 

 wood, Acacia implcxa, now about fifteen feet high, having a 

 stem diameter of about six inches. Evidently a seed of the 

 Lightwood had germinated in a decayed part of the host tree. 



