T24 Field Nalurnli^ls' Cluh — PvncpP(Un(:^<^. [y,_^ 



Virt. Nat. 

 XXWl. 



By Mr. Ti. !>. Willifimson. — Specimen nf Isof^of^nn anciiioui- 

 Jvliiis, R. Br., " I'all CoiK-lmsh," collictcl by Mr. T. S. Hart, 

 M.A., near Bairnsdale, previously doubUully recordt-d for 

 Victoria. 



After tlie usual conversa/Jone the nieetini; teniiinated. 



EXCURSION TO NOBELIUS'S NURSERY, EMERALD. 



About twenty members and friends took advantage of the 

 Cup Day holiday on Tuesday, 4th November, to visit the 

 famous tree-nursery of Messrs. C. A. Nobelius and Sons at 

 Emerald. Near Belgrave station the clumps of the intro- 

 duced Tree Heath, Erica arborca, were noticed growing very 

 strongly. All along the line the beauty of the red— and in 

 some places scarlet — of the young foliage of the gums was 

 very noticeable. The party was met at the station by our 

 fellow-member, Mr. W. Scott, who now lives at Emerald, and 

 by Mr. Barnard, who had walked up that morning from 

 Belgrave. The natural fern gully in the nursery is still as 

 beautiful as ever ; and among the ferns and native trees Mr. 

 Nobelius has planted Hydrangeas, Maples, Japanese Iris, 

 Rhododendrons, and Azaleas, all of which are growing finely. 

 In the lower parts of the gully and along the creeks the English 

 Buttercup, Ranuncitlns repens, has become naturalized, and the 

 golden flowers were very abundant. Near the top of one of 

 the tree-ferns, which was fully fifteen feet in height, a con- 

 siderable clump of the Green Bird Orchid, Chiloglottis Muelleri, 

 Fitz., was discovered. A small boy, cousin of Miss Nether- 

 cote, climbed the tree-fern, and so collected specimens for the 

 party. The exotic trees in the nursery were probably at their 

 best, owing to the spring growth being so fine, and also to the 

 fact that a recent rain had brightened everything up. The 

 trees which were more admired than any others were the 

 Purple and Copper Beeches, of which there were many nursery 

 rows. The glorious tints which these young trees presented, 

 ranging from a rich copper-red, almost crimson, down to a 

 deep purplish-black, combined with the dainty pendulous habit j 

 of the young growths, were the admiration of the whole party. 

 In one small unoccupied portion of the nursery grounds a] 

 profusion of growth of Tetratheca cricifolia and Bauer a riibioidcsl 

 was abundantly in bloom, the latter being particularly fine, 1 

 The feature of the nursery, however, was the establishment of 

 the flax industry, many acres of land being devoted to the] 

 culture of the New Zealand Flax, Phorniiiim tenax. Mr. 

 Nobelius is to be congratulated on his enterprise, and it is to] 

 be hoped that the industry will rapidly extend in the Common-] 

 wealth, and that it will be a profitable one to the originator, 



