PRESIDENTS ADDRESS. / 



Frederick Manson Bailey, C.M.G., Colonial Botanist of 

 Queensland, the Society's senior Corresponding Member, elected 

 on ■26th November, 1877, whose long and active life came to an 

 end on ■25th June, 1915, was widely known and esteemed 

 throughout Australia for "his benevolence and simple-mindedness, 

 as well as for his zeal as a botanist. He came from England to 

 South Australia with his family, in 1839, a boy of twelve. Later 

 on he spent some time at the goldfields in Victoria; then returned 

 to Adelaide for a time; in 1853, migrated to New Zealand, where 

 he remained for some years; and finally, he came back to Aus- 

 tralia in 1861, and settled in Queensland. For a time, he 

 engaged in private business in Brisbane. In 1875, he accepted 

 the position of botanist to a Board appointed to deal with the 

 diseases of plants and animals; this was his first official connec- 

 tion with Australian botany. Later on, he took charge of the 

 botanical section of the Queensland Museum, until, in 1881, he 

 was promoted to the position of Colonial Botanist. He was then 

 able to devote himself in earnest to systematic collecting, and to 

 the study and revision, from personal knowledge, of the Queens- 

 land flora. Tnis he carried out exhaustively during the rest of 

 his life, so that, as his last illness was very brief, he died in 

 harness, in his 89th year. Queensland had attained the status 

 of a separate Colony in 1859, only about two years before Mr. 

 Bailey arrived, and its total population was about 30,000. Hence 

 he was practically an eyewitness of its evolution, and his botanical 

 work developed with its expansion. The flora soon attracted 

 his attention, but scientific enterprises in Queensland were in 

 their infancy; and, until the Flora Australiensis (1863-78) was 

 completed, his progress in doing effective work was somewhat 

 retarded. His first contribution to a knowledge of the Queens- 

 land flora was a modest, private venture, entitled "Handbook 

 to the Ferns of Queensland: with xxii. Plates illustrative of 

 Genera," published in 1874. As this made its appearance before 

 the last volume of the Flora Australiensis was ready, it was re- 

 published in a rearranged and extended form, in 1881, following 

 the classification of Bentham, under a new name, "The Fern 



