March, 1910.] THK VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 169 



selected over twenty-five years ago from Gippsland, and about 

 five years ago from Fernshaw, by the writer. These still aid in 

 making the fern-ground a most naturally picturesque and at- 

 tractive resort. The only two specimens of Cyathea Cunning- 

 hami, sometimes called the Rat-tail Tree-fern, owing to its thin 

 stem, are good ones, each about eight feet in height. They were 

 carried by a friend for several miles on a pack-horse to a Gippsland 

 railway station and forwarded to the Gardens about four years ago. 

 Other native ferns growing in the required sheltered positions in 

 the fern-ground represent different species of the genera Lomaria, 

 Aspidium, Asplenium, Polypodiura, Blechnum, Pteris, Davallia, 

 and Todea (Osmunda). 



As a complete alphabetical list of the Victorian plants in 

 cultivation in the Gardens at the present date is appended, it will 

 not be necessary to further specialize in any way, particularly as 

 remarks on the growth and culture of Victorian plants in the 

 Gardens may form the subject of another paper on some future 

 occasion. In this list each plant is recorded under the scientific 

 name adopted by Bentham and Mueller in their *' Flora 

 Australiensis." 



The common names have been selected, with the aid of Mr. 

 W. R. A. Baker, who has charge of the Gardens herbarium, from 

 the manuscript records used for general plant nomenclature in 

 the Gardens. These common names, however, must not be 

 considered to have the sanction of, or in any way prejudice the 

 work of our Plant Records Committee in the extremely difficult 

 task it has in hand. At the same time they may be helpful to 

 and worthy of consideration by the Committee. 



By the use of reference letters the character of each plant is 

 indicated, whether it be a tree, a tall shrub, a shrub, a dwarf 

 plant, a climber, &c. ; but it must be distinctly understood that 

 these particulars are only given in the light of the condition 

 of the plant as in cultivation in the Gardens. There also 

 is given, as the result principally of my own recording, the 

 month of flowering of each flowering plant. This, it must also 

 be pointed out, may prove to be subject to slight variations 

 owing to differing characters of the same seasons and varying 

 differences of the localities in which the same plant is to be found. 

 It will therefore be remembered that this information, however 

 valuable it may be, has relation to the plants in cultivation in the 

 Gardens.* This list may also prove of value in encouraging 

 members to name other plants not included which they may deem 

 suitable and worthy, for specific reasons, of inclusion in the 

 Gardens collection, and may even stimulate some to forward such 

 specimens to the Gardens for culture. 



* The months mentioned are those in which the principal flowering occurs, 

 and may not be the only period of flowering, as the preceding and following 

 months may find the plant in flower also. 



