Vlll PROCEEDINGS, MAY. 



His Excellency thought that it was a pity if the subject should stop 

 at that place. If Mr. Shoobridge would confer with Mr. Morton a series 

 of papers on the subject might be prepared, and if communication 

 were established with different fruit growing districts information might 

 be obtained of much value. 



The meeting adopted the suggestion as a favourable one. 



Mr. Grant said that in his researches he had noticed that in places 

 where fruit had grown to extraoidinary proportions, like the district of 

 Nova Scotia where the climate was not of the particular conditions 

 described by Mr. Shoobridge as most favourable, the great depth of 

 soil was perhaps the real cause. He noticed that in the valleys of Nova 

 Scotia the English grasses and clover grew to such a height as to 

 resemble a dense scrub. He did not think that the winter of Tasmania 

 was severe enough to kill the insect pests. 



His Excellency thought that Messrs. Shoobridge, Grant, Abbott, 

 and Morton, if willing to act, might constitute themselves a body to 

 obtain all information possible upon the subject with a view of reducing 

 it to a practical form. 



" The Climate of Eastern Tasmania, indicated by its Lichen Flora :'* 

 by Rev. F. R. M. Wilson, Kew, Victoria, Corresponding Member 

 Royal Society, Tasmania : — 



Turing a visit of five weeks to Tasmania, in February and March, 

 1891, while exploring fer lichens m the neighbourhoods of Launceaton, 

 Mount Arthur, Ulverstone, Hobart, Mount Wellington, the Huon River, 

 and St. Mary's Pass, I was struck with the general and unexpected 

 poverty of the lichen floi a. And, on lookmg about for the cause of 

 this, I noted the evident frequency of bush fires, which are the most 

 destructive enemies of lichen growth. This, however, did not wholly 

 explain the matter, for, even where the plants might be expected to 

 recover from the action of the fire, their vitality seemed to be checked 

 by the dryness of the climate. This was a discovery surprising to a 

 Victorian, who had been accustomed to consider the climate of Tas- 

 mania a humid one. An examination of meteorological authorities, 

 however, showed that in the eastern portion of the island the rainfall 

 is not only less than it is in the western, hut less than it is in Victoria. 

 In the west and the highlands of Tasmania 7oin. of rain have been 

 registered in one year, and the average of the whole island is said to 

 be 35in.; but the annual rainfall at Hobart is only 2r52in, These 

 adverse influences of fire and drought doubtless re-act on one another ; 

 the fires thinning the forests and undergrowth and thus lessening the 

 rainfall, and the lack of rain exposing the country to the ravages of 

 fire. These influences, however, are considerably modified in the 

 eastern part of Tasmania by the aUitude of the mountains and by the 

 ocean currents along the coast ; both of which have a great effect upon 

 the geographical distribution of lichens. When I visited Tasmania I 

 was anxious to test a theory which I entertained with regard to the 

 distribution of lichens in Australia. This theory was that the warm 

 current from the tropical Pacific Ocean, passing down the east coast of 

 Australia, carries southward the spores of tropical lichens and the 

 conditions favourable to their growth, until it is met by the cold south- 

 west seas and winds which greet the traveller when doubling Wilson's 

 Promontory from the east. Nautical observations have determined the 

 trend of this coastal current, and traced it from the tropics southward 

 beyond Australia and along the eastern coast of Tasmania. Nylander 

 tells us (Sy n. Meth. , p. 69) that the tropical zone is specially characterised 

 by its epiphyllous lichens, notably by the genus Strigula, and, among 



