PROCEEDINGS, JUNE. ix 



JUNE, 1889. 



The monthly evening meeting was held on June 11th. The President, 

 His Excellency Sir Robt. G. C. Hamilton, K.C.B., in the chair. 



NEW MEMBERS. 



The following gentlemen were balloted for, and declared elected 

 as Fellows :^Messrs. H. Herbert Oakley, Chas. E. VValch, Howard 

 Wright, John Mitchell, and Geo. Lightly. 



LARGE AUSTRALIAN TREES. 



The Secretary (Mr. A, Morton) read the following letter, under 

 date 2Gth ult., received from the Hon. F. Stanley Dobson, Mel- 

 bourne : — 



My Dear Sir, — Instigated by Oliver Wendell Holmes, I have been 

 trying to get ascertained the actual height of our tallest gum trees. 

 Baron von Miiller in his "Botanic Teachings" speaks of 500ft. ! In 

 our recent Exhibition was the photo of the butt of a tree called 

 "The Baron," which was stated, as per note thereto annejced, to be 

 464ft. measured. I gravely doubted this, and I arranged with the Hon. 

 J as. Munro, who was appointed with myself to control and appro- 

 priate the expenditure of £100 from the trustees of the Public Library ; 

 £100 from the Commissioners of the recent Exhibition, and any further 

 sum up to £800 that might be necesaary from our Lands department — 

 to have this specially-named tree measured and photoed. Mr. Munro 

 advertised a reward of £100 from his own pocket for any one who 

 would point out to a licensed Government Surveyor a tree reaching 

 400ft. Mr. Munro and I obtained through the Hon. Mr, Dow, Minister 

 of Lands, reports from the surveyors in his department as to any 

 exseptionally large trees within their knowledge. The highest turned 

 out to be a tree near Ueerim, in Gippsland, which reached (I am 

 speaking from memory) 325ft., at any rate it was the largest that our 

 surveyors and photographers could get at. " The Baron " was known 

 only to a Mr. Boyle, and to a photographer, Mr. Carie, the gentleman 

 whose photo of the butt appeared in our Exhibition. Mr. Carie 

 would not say where it was, so I wrote to Mr. Boyle, and he consented 

 to guide anyone whom I choose to send to the tree. I saw Mr. Perrin 

 and Mr. Dow, and it was arranged that Mr. Perrin and Mr. Fuller, 

 a Government surveyor, should arrange to go with Mr. Boyle to the 

 spot. They went, and when Mr. Perrin saw that the trees on the 

 Sassafras Valley were very tall, he set four men to work to clear 

 the scrub and undergrowth away, so as to allow both a theodolite 

 and a camera to work on " The Baron," and to other trees in the neigh- 

 bourhood. Allowing time for the clearing, he returned with surveyor 

 and photographer, and we now find that the "Baron" instead of 

 being 464ft. is only 219ft. 9in. No tree in the neighbourhood reached 

 SCOft. Now, I believe that your Tasmanian trees beat ours, and as 

 I am most anxious to set the matter finally at rest, I am writing to 

 you and through you to the members of the Royal Society to get, if 

 I can, verified statements of the height of Tasmanian trees. I 

 remember that Sir William Denison measured some trees near the 

 Huon, and in one of the Tasmanian Exhibitions the printed catalogue, 

 unless my memory fails me sadly, was contained his measurement 

 of the tree, and a further statement of the number of 8ft. and 

 6ft. palings, the number of shingles and laths cut out of it, and the 

 price which this timber realised in the Melbourne market — something 

 like £250, as our first goldfield rush was then at its height, say. 



