140 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



FACILITIES FOR BOTANICAL STUDIES IN VICTORIA. 



By Henry Thos. Tisdall. 



(^Read before the Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria, IQth January, 1899.) 



The visits of distinguished scientific botanists to our shores are, 

 unfortunately, Uke angels' visits, few and far between. Towards 

 the end of the last century we had Banks and Solander, who 

 forwarded their collections to Sir Edward Smith for identification, 

 consequently it is to him we are indebted for the names of some 

 of our larger indigenous plants. In the commencement of this 

 century Robert Brown spent over two years travelling over the 

 several colonies, and enriched the knowledge of botany with careful 

 descriptions of an immense number of plants hitherto unknown 

 to science. Following these were A. Cunningham, Frantz Sieber, 

 and Sir James Hooker. 



In the early forties Sir Ferdinand (then Dr.) Mueller com- 

 menced his arduous work, travelling, working, and elucidating 

 the characters of the various plants not before described. So 

 thoroughly has he done the work that, with the exception of 

 cryptogamic plants, such as seaweeds, fungi, and mosses, very 

 seldom indeed do we hear of a new species being found. Refer- 

 ring to cryptogams, we have had some renowned specialists, 

 more especially in Algae, such as Professor Harvey. 



Only this month we have had a visit from the celebrated Dr. 

 Goebel, of Munich. Unfortunately his time was very limited, as he 

 bad to return to his professorial duties at the University of Munich 

 in March. He has visited Western Australia, South Australia, 

 New South Wales, and New Zealand. He was especially interested 

 in Victoria, and during his outward journey took a trip amongst 

 our mountain gullies, noting and collecting plants for microscopic 

 examination. On his return from New Zealand he managed 

 to spend a day partly over the heath country around San- 

 dringham, and partly on the beach between Sandringham and 

 Cheltenham. He collected many seaweeds, amongst others 

 one of our large brown seaweeds, Ecklonia radiata ; this 

 he examined so minutely, and took away so many speci- 

 mens, that we may expect to have an interesting description 

 in his new work on botany. He obtained the seeds of a 

 large number of our native plants for the purpose of watching 

 their life-history. As he is also Director of the Royal Botanic 

 Gardens at Munich, he will be enabled to do this in the most 

 thorough manner. 



Speaking of liotanic Gardens brings me to our own. Since its 

 first inception it has been gradually growing in importance and 

 beauty. As a recreation ground for our citizens, and as a great 

 attraction for our visitors, it is simply invaluable. The various 

 plants, the noble trees, the beauteous lawns, and, above all, the 



