^° v ;-] Exhibition of Wild- flowers. 97 



EXHIBITION OF WILD-FLOWERS. 



The 1915 exhibition of wild-flowers held by the Field 

 Naturalists' Club of Victoria in the Athenaeum Hall, Collins- 

 street, on Tuesday, 28th September, will be long remembered, 

 for two reasons. Firstly, on account of being the first occasion 

 on which the Melbourne public were asked to pay for admission 

 to see wild-flowers only ; and. secondly, the reason for holding 

 the display — that by the proceeds the Club might be able to 

 do something towards providing comforts for the Victorian 

 soldiers invalided home from the greatest war in the annals 

 of history. 



As is well known, the exhibits for a wild-flower show are far 

 more uncertain up to the last moment than for an ordinary 

 horticultural show, and it was gratifying to the committee to 

 find such a ready response by friends in the country to their 

 appeal for boxes of flowers. Members of the Club also 

 travelled to distant places, such as Gellibrand (Otway Forest), 

 Bendigo, the Brisbane Range, &c, in order that they might 

 secure suitable specimens for exhibition in the best possible 

 condition. 



The platform was decorated with some fine fan leaves of 

 our only Victorian Palm, Livistona australis, and branches of 

 Lilly-pillies, Eugenia Smithii, from the Botanic Gardens, 

 kindly sent by the Director, Mr. J. Cronin, who also forwarded 

 a fine display of blooms of Australian shrubs, &c, as well as 

 with a number of well-furnished eucalyptus saplings and 

 foliage and large bunches of the red and white Native Heath 

 (Epacris), collected at Pakenham and supplied by Mr. F. Wise- 

 would. Some fine masses of bright-tinted young foliage of 

 various eucalypts from Mr. Biggs, and Victorian Beech foliage 

 from Mr. A. D. Hardy, also materially assisted in forming the 

 picturesque appearance which the platform presented from 

 the body of the hall. 



The exhibition was opened in the afternoon by His Excellency 

 the Governor, Sir A. Stanley, who congratulated the Club on 

 the interesting display and the amount of enthusiasm aroused 

 in the general public, as indicated by the splendid attendance. 

 During bis visits to different parts of Victoria he had obtained 

 much pleasure in exploring its wilder parts and observing its 

 natural beauties. He thought that no person could but 

 admire the wonderful variety of flowers exhibited that after- 

 noon, and he would carry away from the exhibition pleasant 

 recollections, supplanting, for the time, the anxieties of the 

 war. 



In the rush ol opening the packages and setting out the flowers 

 in the limited time available it was quite impossible to keep 

 a complete record of the collectors and all the Localities where 



