90 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



trees must be classed, and like all good servants deserve their 

 wages — a small portion of a field for themselves, and proper 

 attention to their wants : not all the grass eaten bare around 

 them, as in our parks near Melbourne ; the gum-trees near Dande- 

 nong are fast going from this treatment. After many years' work 

 at the diseases of our Aromadendrons we plead for their wants 

 to be thought of, for they serve us well — indeed, we cannot guess 

 at the dire results there will be if we continue to neglect their 

 wants as we are doing — we may say cheating them out of what is 

 due to them for their services as fertilizers alone. The remarkable 

 manner some fern-trees (Alsophila) rapidly recover their luxuriant 

 growth by young saplings of the eucalypts being allowed to 

 grow near and shelter them, shows a fellowship between two 

 remarkably different plants— we might almost say fertilizing each 

 other. This good fellowship of one plant to another will be, 

 most probably, more used every day, and can be classed as a 

 fertilizing factor. This is put in practice by growing maize and 

 pumpkins in alternate rows in some parts, and will be probably put 

 into service in order to grow, say, root crops in our hot districts, 

 by alternating peas or beans with roots ; and as these are removed 

 before the roots are ready, the cultivator can be run through — 

 another fertilizer — the soil keeping more moist through stirring. 

 Water, as a fertilizer, means only a sufficiency of moisture is 

 required, and my axiom, which applies to plant or animal life, 

 comes in here — " Enough is health, more is disease," and, in 

 using water there must be fermentable matter about, or water 

 gives alone a poor return. Weeds do very well, as the Nile when 

 it overflows is full of decaying matter, and has fertilized the land 

 for thousands of years, man assisting as far as his means and 

 knowledge went. 



The use of inorganic matter, such as lime — for even the slimiest 

 or most gelatinous of fungi requires for its well-being lime. 

 When lime is scattered in our- drains to kill germs, there are 

 some germs, in little corners where the hot lime has not reached, 

 which will feed on the slacked lime and thrive by-and-by. 

 Charcoal used in filters is the home of some germs after it has 

 been clogged with vegetable matter to suit tliem. Arsenic after 

 a time feeds plant-life ; salt, of course, if not applied too strong ; 

 and a midge of a plant I have kept alive for years on sulphide 

 ores. When the sulphur has been appropriated by this midge 

 the ores fall into fragments, and this midge, in its turn, will 

 provide food for some other plant-life requiring sulphur daintily 

 prepared. It would take too long to mention the various 

 mineral matters that are used in cultivation, and the plants which 

 require them or do not use them. Zinc is known to be where 

 the violet grows a pale lavender. This can be seen near Sale. 

 Some years, after very dry seasons there, a creek, when winter 



