Monday, August 22, 2016

Melbourne impressions

I spent the weekend in Melbourne on family matters and then today Monday at the Royal Botanic Gardens Herbarium on work matters.


Artwork in our hotel room: A painting of roses that I accidentally put into the washing machine, by anonymous.


Even coming in from the airport we were already wondering what all those masses of yellow, nodding, tubular flowers along the roadsides were. Surely they wouldn't have that many primroses everywhere? Turns out they were rather large-flowered Oxalis. Not sure about the species though, did not study the relevant characters closely enough.


Jellyfish at the Melbourne Aquarium.


Although I have been in the city and even the botanic gardens before this was the first time I actually visited the herbarium. The building consists of two parts, a box that was constructed in the first half of the 20th century, and a round extension that was added in the 1980s. The wall on the left is apparently what used to be one of the facades of the old building, now inside the extension on the right. The latter has two levels of herbarium specimens and a third level housing the library.


Finally, a statue honouring the leaders of Melbourne's ambitious but ultimately tragic 1860-61 expedition attempting to cross the whole continent from south to north, Burke and Willis.

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