THE CITY OF MELBOURM'. 



49' 



The winding pathway through these is three hundred yards long, and is overarched by 

 hundreds of native tree-ferns ; while the rugged trunks of the trees which support a 

 loftier cloister overhead are thickly studded with elk-horn, stag-horn and other epiphytal 

 ferns. And there are sylvan walks sufficiently quiet and secluded, where students may 

 muse and philosophers moralize. 



The great charm of the Gardens is their apparently endless extent, and n-.\t t.. 

 that the variety of views and vistas they present, owing to the irregularities and undula- 



I'lIE MKI.HUUkNK OBSERVATORY. 



tions of their surface. There is no 

 sense of " circumscription or con- 

 fine," no sameness, no repetitions 

 of a prospect, or disappointments 

 upon reaching an eminence. The 

 place is full of agreeable surprises, and there are so many different coigns of vantage 

 that a long afternoon may be spent in their discovery and enjoyment. In the spring, 

 summer and autumn, the Gardens exhibit a wealth of colour which gain additional bril- 

 liancy and lustre by contrast with the bronze, copper-coloured and gray-green foliage of 

 many of the exotic trees planted in the immediate vicinity of the variegated parterres : 

 and these, of course, vary in splendour according to the condition of the atmosphere, the 

 position of the sun, and the hour of the day, glooming and glowing in correspondence 

 with the mutable aspects of the sky. 



From the summit of the hill, near the western or St. Kilda Road entrance, a 

 tolerably comprehensive view is obtained of this picturesque demesne. 1 o the right is 

 the western lawn, beautified with groups of ornamental and coloured foliage-plants, of 

 dwarf Australian (lowering shrubs, with clusters of trees representing upwards of twenty 

 natural orders, with plants of medicinal value and with the camellia ground. Beyond 

 this, and looking over the I'ictoria Rcgia house, the eye rests upon the eastern lawn, 

 in which are some fine groups of Queensland plants, the ornamental bedding-grounds, 



