Cbe Uiciorian naturalist 



Vol. XXII. —No. 5. SEPTEMBER 7, 1905. No. 261. 



FIELD NATURALISTS' CLUB OF VICTORIA. 



The ordinary monthly meeting of the Club was held at the 

 Royal Society's Hall on Monday evening, 14th August, 1905. 



The president, Mr. F. G. A. Barnard, occupied the chair, and 

 about 80 members and visitors were present. 



REPORT. 



The leader, Mr. T. S. Hall, M.A., reported that, owing to the 

 rain, the ramble arranged for Saturday, 12th, from Heidelberg to 

 Camberwell, had been abandoned. 



ELECTION OF MEMBERS. 



On a ballot being taken, Mrs. Cudmore, Murphy-street, South 

 Yarra, Miss D. Fowler, Bamfield-street, Sandringham, and Miss 

 J. Smith, Droop-street, Footscray, were duly elected ordinary 

 members, and Miss Bertha Keartland, Masters Frank, Arthur, 

 and Ernest Cudmore, and F. L. Alcock as junior members of the 

 Club. 



GENERAL BUSINESS. 



Mr. A. Mattingley said that the letter from the Club which 

 recently appeared in the public press, protesting against the 

 destruction of wattle, appeared likely to give the public the idea 

 that the Club was opposed even to a sprig of blossom being taken 

 from a tree, and thought it would be well if the Club would define 

 what it regarded as destruction of wattle trees. 



The president said that his view of the matter, and one which 

 he thought all would agree with, was that the mere picking of 

 small sprays of blossom in the public parks should be overlooked, 

 but it should be considered destruction where boys climbed the 

 trees and broke down the branches with the intention of making 

 up large bunches of blossoms. Such a case he had witnessed 

 the previous day on the bank of the river at Ivanhoe, but being 

 on private property the police could take no action. 



The president also said that he had recently been pleased to 

 notice several Silver Wattles in bloom in the Domain, near 

 Brander's Ferry, but, on closer examination, in the case of nearly 

 every tree the trunk had been slightly ring-barked or the bark on 

 the branches cut longitudinally, and asked for information as to 

 whether this was a case of vandalism, or had it been done with 

 the idea of causing the trees to bloom in a young state ? 



Mr. F. Pitcher (Botanical Gardens) said that so far as he 

 knew no permission had been given to cut the trees, and it 



