4 
The many thousand large plants required for this purpose were partly supplied by donations 
or interchanges. Clover and lucerne are also established on the lagoons and even on the rises. 
To render, in our zone of evergreen vegetation, the Yarra valley never of winterly, leafless 
aspect, the City Council very kindly allowed a strip of ground all along the northern banks to be 
ploughed for the reception of seeds of such quick-growing evergreen trees (chiefly Eucalypts, Acacias, 
Exocarpus, and Casuarinas) as will resist those occasional inundations, to which we are still likely to be 
exposed, unless many more of the ledges of rocks across the Yarra are blasted away, to decrease still 
further the niveau of the river, a measure which the still rapid fall during floods will admit of. 
To secure the lower part of the Garden against such calamities and destructions as were 
experienced during the last four floods, it will be necessary to raise the river bank still three to four 
feet higher, pei'haps with the fox*mation of a terrace, although the embankment has been heightened 
already all along the Garden to the extent of several feet. This security could, however, not be 
afforded on the expansive flat next to the City bridge without serious impediment to the flood stream ; 
but the swampy ground, now with the change of seasons wet and dry, will absolutely need deepening 
in several places, and raising (under formation of islands and such like ornamentation) in other spots, 
inasmuch as localities on which the area of dry land and of ponds is not jnoperly defined, are prone to 
originate, by algic growth, malarian fevers. Consequently, on grounds of sanitary necessity alone, I 
feel bound to recommend this measure. 
A .spacious sluice was built, by Garden labor, last year, to admit of the sudden filling of the 
Garden lake whenever the river rapidly rises, in order that the demolition of the embankments of 
the lake may in future be obviated. 
The tall Indian Bamboo has been acclimatized, and is, with other Bambusaceae and the Nile 
Papyrus, chosen to fringe the lake. In a climate like ours, which admits of the culture of so many 
tropical plants without glass protection, it is always an important object to group the greatest 
possible number of prominently remarkable plants from various parts of the globe suitably together. 
This, indeed, is one of the greatest charms in our horticulture. Throughout the Garden ground 
numerous new species have been added annually, predominance being given to such shrubs and 
perennial plants as entail the least attention for maintenance. Were it otherwise, so extensive an 
area could not be maintained in sightliness, whilst here throughout the year the growth of weeds, 
annually more diversified, is to be coped with. And even now it is unavoidable to cover the central 
portions of all the shrubberies densely with perennial grasses, an operation which could not have 
been effected a few years ago, because the plants, then small, would have become suffocated. 
Plantations have also been formed at the stately girder-bridge, a structure which reflects high credit 
on the Department of Public Works. Whenever the lower part of Anderson-street is to be filled up, 
then the dyke now forming the approach to the bridge ought to be reduced. 
The whole area of the Garden and arboreta now laid out comprises nearly 400 acres, incli^ding 
the lake with its six islands. To the latter, a seventh requires to be added, on the north-western 
extremity. By the extensive excavations on the lagoon, the once inundated eastern tea-tree ground 
has now been completely reclaimed, and forms a miniature forest, readily accessible to pic-nic parties 
from the river. Turf soil is by these means also easily obtained for Nursery culture. The work 
connected with the excavations also enabled me to establish passages across three of the bends of the 
lake, whereby the distance from point to point has been conveniently lessened. It allowed, also, 
widening the causeway and securing good soil for the Garden. Unrestricted access for carriages is 
given to all the rising ground in the reserve, from which such panoramic views may be enjoyed over 
the city, subixrban landscapes, and bay ; and it is anticipated that, whilst from year to year the 
park-trees will afford augmented shade and shelter, the locality indicated will become to residents 
of the city one of the easiest and most favorite resorts for recreative enjoyments. A proposition, 
suggested in one of my former Reports, that the paths along the base of the ridges and along the 
Yarra banks might be widened into pleasure drives, could now be readily carried out, the Yarra flats, 
by recent arrangements, being no longer occupied as pasture ground. 
In special artistic ornamentation as yet little has been effected, the Director deeming it of 
pre-eminent importance to devote his early means to the raising of trees and utilitarian plants, such as 
will mitigate the heat of our summer clime, and increase the salubrity of the city, or such as will play 
an important element hereafter in our rural economy, and originate new industries. This is the reason 
why no fountains exist, save one in the central island of the lake ; thus neither are statues erected. 
