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184 EEPORT OF THE VICTORIAN GOVERNMENT BOTANIST.
somewhat raised and to be covered with a gravel-layer, or perhaps with
clayey grit, which is far more accessible, and will bind into a firm mass,
impervious to rain. A large portion of the main drive from the City
Bridge to Anderson Street, needs yet to be macadamized, and basalt
boulders might be used to mark off lastingly its footpaths.
The tree lines along the walks amount altogether now to 21 miles
also, different kinds of trees have recently been chosen for these ave-
nues, to exhibit the relative merits of each. The remaining portion
of the reserve Ijetween the City Bridge and the Botanic Garden has
latterly also been planted with many additional kinds of Pines — not
less than 21,000 Pines, representing very many species, being now
grouped or scattered on the lawns. To prevent more completely a
certain degree of monotony, which might be caused by the massive
upgrowth of Conifers, though many are of very distinct form, and
though lines of deciduous trees dissect the lawns, I introduced into the
incipient pinetum several hundreds of New Zealand Palm-lilies {Cor-
dyline Australis and C. indivisa), and also numerous groups of real
Palms,—for instance, the Gippsland Fan-Palm, the New Zealand Nika-
Nika, the Date, the Seaforthia, the Sabal, and a few others equally
hardy. Many of these Palms or palm-like plants have become already
very conspicuous, and it may be readily foreseen that, within a few
years, the environs of the city will assume by this measure an aspect
so exotic, that a visitor viewing the suburl)an landscape will imagine
himself to be within the tropics. To the Palm groves require still to
be added in (juantity the Chilian Jubaea and the equally hardy Chinese
Livistonia. The various trees will form a nucleus for forest culture
when gradually bearing seeds, and when not merely the protection but
also the enrichment of the native forests will become an object of legis-
lative enactments. The total number of trees now planted out ap-
proaches to 30,000. The Willow plantations along both the Yarra
banks, from Prince's Bridge to Richmond, have been renewed or com-
pleted this year on the municipal side of the river by the aid of the
Corporation. The renewal of the fences since the last floods, effected
at great expense by the City Council, has afforded for this purpose all
the necessary security. Weeping Willows and various kinds of Basket
Willows have been chosen promiscuously to combine ornament with
utility.
A dense belt of vegetation will thus guard against accidents, embel-
;