PROCEEDINGS, AUGUST. 



AUGUST, 1889. 



The monthly evening meeting was held on Monday evening, August 

 19th, the President, His Excellency Sir Robert G. C. Hamilton, K.C.B., 

 in the chair. 



THE LATE MR. JUSTIN BEOWNE. 



The President said : Gentlemen, before we proceed to business 

 to-night I would remark that since our last meeting this Society 

 has suffered the loss of a very old member who had been, I understand, 

 21 years a member of the Council — Mr. Justin McC. Browne. I am sure 

 we should wish to place on record our great regret at his death, and 

 our heartfelt sympathy with those he has left behind. 



TALL TASMANIAN TREES, 



The Secretary (Mr. Alex. Morton) stated that since the last meeting, 

 at which the question of the height of some of the tallest Tasmanian 

 trees had been discussed, he had been making inquiries by circular 

 on the subject and had received some replies of value thereon. He 

 intended to have a paper on the subject at a future meeting or the 

 Society. Baron Von Mueller had written on this subject asking him 

 to mention at this meeting that he (Baron Von Mueller) had never 

 made himself responsible for measurements of 400ft. in height of any 

 eucalyptus trees, and that in nearly all his writings on this subject he 

 gave the names of those on whose statements he had relied too hastily 

 in reference to exaggerated data concerning the supposed exceptional 

 heights of certain eucalyptus. In the Argus of May 25 last he had 

 set forth some of the best information obtainable, and urged new 

 measurements of trees in Tasmania and West Australia, It would 

 be fpleasing if the Tasmanian members of the Australian Association 

 for the Advancement of Science, who will attend the Melbourne 

 meeting to be held in the early part of next year, could furnish for the 

 biological section genuine measurements of Tasmania's tallest trees, or 

 trustworthy records of past discoveries in this direction. He further 

 suggested that an officer from the Survey Department should visit 

 the group discovered by Mr, C. Barkley at Mount Barrow to obtain 

 reliable data on the height of these trees, 



Mr. T. Stephens furnished the following memorandum on the subject 

 of Lady Franklin's tiee : — 



In June, ISSl, I measured the trunk of a large tree near the Huon 

 road, which had gone by the name of Lady Franklin's tree, and was 

 probably identical with one of those described by the Rev. T. J. Fwing 

 in the proceedings of the Royal Society of May 9, 1849. It had been 

 blown down in the gale of December 26, 1880, and had been partly 

 burnt in a bush fire some two months afterwards. The circumference 

 of the trunk at the ground was about 70ft., but measurements round 

 the Luttresses of these large trees are not worth much for purposes 

 of comparison. At 26ft. from the root the circumference was 27ft., 

 and at 56ft. up it was 21ft. The total length of the stem to where it 

 ended abruptly, being free from branches the whole way, was 266ft. , 

 and it was there 9ft. round. Sixty or seventy feet is a very moderate 

 estimate for the height of the rest of the tree, and the total height could 

 not be less than 330ft,, and might have been much more. The tree 

 was too much burnt to enable one to determine the species, but Mr. 

 Ewing calls his big tree a swamp gum. My impression at the time 

 was that the greater part of the top had been blown off, as often 

 happens, long before the tree fell. More remains of it would have 

 been left if it had been down only six months. 



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