March, 1910.[ THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 167 



serve or meet, one should be to furnish its visitors with examples 

 of the general types of the flora of the country in which such a 

 garden is positioned. This may seem a superfluous remark, but 

 from the experience one has had, both from observation and read- 

 ing, as well as from the remarks of visitors, the aim of the authorities 

 of many botanic and other public gardens seems to be to acquire as 

 large a collection of exotic plants as possible, to the exclusion 

 of the native flora of the local region or country — a striking proof 

 of the truth underlying the old adage, which, if varied to suit the 

 case, would read — " A plant is not without honour save in its own 

 country." It must not be thought for a moment that I am 

 claiming this to be a paramount object of a botanic garden, but 

 visitors from different States and other countries should be 

 able, for various reasons, to see a fairly good representative 

 collection of types of a country's vegetation in the principal 

 botanic gardens of that country, to say nothing of the possible 

 value to the local residents in having such types grown in cultiva- 

 tion and their nomenclature displayed. It may be said, however, 

 with a degree of pride and congratulation, that the late Director 

 did not exclude suitable indigenous vegetation from the Melbourne 

 Botanic Gardens, for out of an approximate total of 2,000 species 

 which constitute the Victorian flora no less than 400 are 

 to be found in cultivation in the Gardens. This may at a first 

 thought seem to be a very small proportion, but it has to be 

 borne in mind that a large number of our indigenous plants, like 

 those of any other country, are too insignificant for cultiva- 

 tion, and are of no popular interest whatever, while many others 

 it would be either impossible or undesirable to grow and 

 maintain owing to the unsatisfactory reward for the labour which 

 it would be necessary to bestow on them in the endeavour to do 

 so. When it is remembered that in the case of many of the 400 

 distinct species represented there are numerous examples 

 scattered throughout the grounds, the statement that our native 

 vegetation has not been neglected in the endeavour to make the 

 institution educationally interesting, and attractive to visitors in 

 other directions, will be readily admitted. Hence the collection, 

 within an area of about 100 acres, of so large a number of plants, 

 brought from habitats of varying longitudes and latitudes 

 throughout the State, with the attendant differences in situation 

 of mountain heights or river or creek valleys, from diversified 

 soils, from dry or wet positions, from coastal or inland districts, 

 may be considered fairly satisfactory, especially in view of only 

 general attention being available for their growth and main- 

 tainence. 



While by far the largest number of Victorian plants are to be 

 found in the extensive area devoted to Australian vegetation 

 established by the late Director several years ago, and which 



