168 H. C. RUSSELL. 



NOTES ON THE RATE OF GROWTH OF SOME 

 AUSTRALIAN TREES. 



By H. C. Russell, b.a., c.m.g., f.r.s. 



[Bead before the Royal Society of N.S. Wales, December 2, 1891.'] 



In older countries the rate at which various trees grow has been 

 carefully watched for many generations, and many facts are 

 available if one wants to know the rate of growth of particular 

 kinds of trees. In this colony the case is very different, the 

 available information in regard to the rate at which our indigen- 

 ous trees grow is meagre. Yet it is a matter of importance in 

 many investigations, and its bearing upon some meteorological 

 questions has induced me to put together the few scraps of infor- 

 mation I have available, so that they may be of use to others, 

 and perhaps lead to the publication of additional information. 



I have once or twice referred to this question in this room before, 

 and when in February 1885, I established a Meteorological Station 

 at Lake George, I took the precaution to measure one small tree 

 and arrange for its measurement at intervals since. As you are 

 aware the lake has on several occasions risen and killed trees 

 growing on its margin, and if we could ascertain the probable age 

 of such trees, we should have a rough measure of the intervals 

 between these floods- -a point of considerable importance ; and 

 we should be able to throw some light upon a very interesting 

 fact mentioned by Sir Thomas Mitchell, who records that on his 

 journey down the Murray in June 1836, he came upon a creek 

 leading into the river, in which he saw " a single row of bare poles 

 measuring from three to five inches in diameter," which had 

 evidently grown where he saw them in the centre of the stream. 

 " The poles were the remains of Yarra trees eight or ten years 

 old, and marked the extent doubtless of a long period of drought, 

 which had continued until some high flood had killed them." 



