THE NATIVE FLORA. 
15 
and the flowers equally brilliant on the poor coastal- 
plain soils, as in rich jungle and alluvial soils in the 
Gippsland area. The poor coastal sandy plains in 
East Gippsland, the clay soils of the Goulburn Val- 
ley, the rich soils and the sandy pine ridges of the 
Mallee, the Silurian soils scattered all over the State, 
these all yield botanic treasures of wonderful form 
and brilliant hue. Rich soils and poor soils alike, 
favourable and unfavourable latitudes and aspects, 
are all possessed of a valuable native flora. And so 
our plants are thus fitted by nature to be hardy. The 
foliage, the bark, the seeds, all show this. It is 
recorded that the seeds of some of our Acacias may 
be germinated when they are fifty years old, while 
the Government Botanist, Professor Ewart, has ger- 
minated seeds of Goodia lotifolia, which were defin- 
itely known to be one hundred and five years old, and 
seeds of Hardenbergia monophylla (the purple sar- 
saparilla) were germinated at an age of fifty years. 
Victorian plants are obtainable to suit every 
requirement — useful, beautiful, or ornamental. The 
use of our plants in the applied arts is now becoming 
general, and in all classes of designing, as well as in 
decorating, it is encouraging to lovers of the native 
flora to know that art workers are enthusiastically 
taking these as models. In garden work of all 
descriptions our plants and trees are being used, and 
it is hoped here to further show that quite a number 
of plants, which so far have been neglected, are avail- 
able for various uses in the garden. 
The use of Pittosporum undulatum as a hedge 
plant is generally known, and provided it be cut 
