166 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. XXVI. 



wisely had a quantity of English ivy, which had been planted at 

 their bases to improve their appearance and had grown up the 

 trunks, removed, as it was found that such was injuring the 

 specimens, to their possible early destruction. These trees are 

 each over 50 feet in height. One of them is much more lateral in 

 its branching than the other, and the radius of its shade on a bright 

 day averages a distance of over 40 feet from the trunk. 



Another example of the original vegetation on the Gardens 

 site is the old gnarled and grey-stemmed specimen of the same 

 eucalyptus, E. rostrata, situated a little easterly from the newly 

 erected tea kiosk on the southern edge of the Tennyson Lawn. 

 This specimen, which is known as the " Separation Tree," had, 

 during the late Director's term of office, on many occasions 

 appeared to be dying, but by various treatments — sometimes by 

 surface soakage and other times by drainage — it has been kept 

 alive, and is to-day more vigorous than on many occasions during 

 the writer's long and respectful observation of it. It is hoped 

 that this specimen will be cherished and maintained as long as 

 possible, and be remembered as having been an old tree when, 

 on ist July, 185 1, there assembled at its base and under its 

 foliage a company of people to celebrate the separation of our 

 present State of Victoria from the mother State of New South 

 Wales.* Plate vi. is taken from a recent photograph of this tree. 



The only other remaining tree which one is able definitely to 

 point out as having been in existence before the establishment of 

 the Gardens is a specimen of the Victorian Manna Gum, 

 Eucalyptus viminalis. It is situated on the Western Lawn, near 

 the Gardens office. The tree is at present almost entirely covered 

 with English ivy, which for many years has made it a picturesque 

 object, but which seems to be effectively, if but slowly, 

 destroying it. The area in which this tree is located Vt'as formally 

 included in the Domain. 



In addition to these few examples mentioned one may observe 

 in the Domain and in one or two spots in the Gardens, growing 

 in a natural state, similar plants to those which originally existed, 

 such as Bursaria, Casuaiina, Myoporum, Leptospermum, Silver, 

 Black, and Golden Wattles, Kennedya prostratci, Drosera, 

 Burchardia, and other smaller plants and grasses. These, 

 however, are only such as have been self-perpetuated from those 

 existing previously. 



In passing on now to the cultivated Victorian plants which are 

 to be found growing in the Gardens, some general observations 

 may be made. While there are so many and varied requirements 

 which a public botanic garden might reasonably be expected to 



* A slight error crept into the recently published guide book to the Gardens, 

 where it is stated • the assemblage resolved on the separation, instead of met 

 io celebrate the same. 



