EEPOET ON THE BOTANIC GARDENS, GOVERNMENT HOUSE 
GROHNDS AND DOMAIN, FOR 1881. 
Te the Hon, Walter Madden, M.P., Commissioner of Crown Lands and Survey. 
Sir, 
I have the honor to furnish you with a Eeport on the Botanic Gardens, Government 
House Grounds, and Domain, for the year 1881. 
When the seasons were favorable, and when a cessation from watering intervened, advan- 
tage was taken of the opportunity thereby afforded of carrying out a few improvements ; a 
detailed account of which will be given further on. 
Although the early portions of the spring and summer months of 1881-82 were all that 
could be desired, I regret to have to say that, when the very severe drought set in, the water 
supply was altogether inadequate, so much so, that irrigation was rendered impossible, and had 
to be abandoned. 
The staff, therefore, was called on to work overtime in the evening, so that the grass and 
the plants throughout the grounds might be kept alive by sprinkling. 
The scarcity of a proper water supply at a most critical juncture is of periodical recur- 
rence, and will always be so, until the supply-pipe to the reservoir in the Gardens has been 
increased in capacity. During the past year, as on former occasions, I have found the small 
engine a most useful auxiliary, one, in fact, indispensable under existing circumstances ; but 
the large 20-horse power engine, which supplies the Albert Park lagoon as well as the Gardens, 
is able to afford an unlimited quantity of water to the latter, during the summer months, 
provided the present pipe is replaced by a larger one. 
The reduction of the annual vote in 1880, and consequent reduction of the staff of the 
Gardens and Domain, is to be deplored, as it has not only crippled my efforts to carry on the 
remodelling which I had commenced and partially carried out, but has also prevented my 
maintaining the Grounds in proper order. Many things, therefore, remain in a very unfinished 
and unsightly condition. If say ten or twelve additional laborers could be employed for 
several years, the work of remodelling the Garden would be at an end, and, when once com- 
pleted, a diminution of labor would naturally ensue, as stated in the Annual Eeport for 1876. 
A place laid out in the form which I am giving to the Botanic Gatdens will be easily 
kept in order after a year or two. Grass lawns can be mown by machine. The three large 
lawns lately formed in the Gardens can, as I have previously stated, be attended to and kept in 
order by the labor of one man and a horse, who could go over a much greater space in a week 
than is at present required ; whereas, numerous borders of fiowers, with walks occupying the 
same space, would necessitate a vast amount of labor and expense. Nor can anything in the 
way of extensive gardening be more suitable and beautiful than a succession of verdant lawns, 
broken by graceful groups of diversified foliage, and effectively arranged fioral bloom. 
Even the highest and most important feature in a Botanic Garden — -the collection and 
scientific arrangement of plants — can be advantageously carried out in this manner, which 
combines the useful with the ornamental, and gratifies the taste of lovers of the picturesque 
and beautiful, while facilitating the researches of the botanical student. 
Among others, who have availed themselves of the opportunities afforded here for the 
study of botany, I may mention Mr. T. Hurly, Vice-principal of the Training Institute for 
Teachers (Education Department, Melbourne), who has the direction of a large class of ladies, 
and who has succeeded during the year in passing a number of students in this branch of 
natural science. 
