PRESIDENT S ADDKESS. 9 



out as I recognised them in tlie })]knt. Wlien my account was 

 completed, I started to find the family, the genus, and the species. 

 If T found the correct genus, the rest was comparatively simple. 

 How I wished for a book with some figures or diagrams of the 

 fioral characters of the principal families of plants found in our 

 bush! From these laboui-s, I learned to appreciate the value of 

 precise observation. T have mentioned plants, Ijut our rocky 

 foreshores are alive with animal life, and no one but a specialist 

 can learn of them. Butterflies and moths attract many. We 

 have a useful book about butterflies, and we would all welcome 

 others treating of other kinds of insects. May I hope that the 

 day is not very distant when ten or twenty of these useful books 

 will have been written. 



On this occasion our th<nights may fittingly turn to our absent 

 soldier-members. In addition to those mentioned at the last two 

 Annual Meetings, Mr. E. Griffiths, B.Sc, of the Department of 

 Agriculture, Mr. Tilley, of the Geolc^gical Department of the 

 University of Sydney, and Mr. R. B. Oliver, of Auckland, New 

 Zealand, have departed for the front during the year, or are pre- 

 paring to do so. Not only have we not had the pleasure of 

 N\elcoming any of them .back during the year, but we haxe heard, 

 with sorrow, of the death of Dene B. Fry, one of our promising 

 junior Members. 



Four Ordinary Members lune been elected during tlie Session, 

 two resignations have l)een received, and three Members ha\e 

 been lost by death. 



Dene Barrett Fry, killed in action in France, on April Uth, 

 1917, aged 23, was the first of our Soldier-members to fall. He 

 was a rising young biologist of great promise, elected a Member 

 in 191. "3; and his loss is greatly to be dej^lored. His training- 

 began at the Australian Museum, as a cadet, in 1908, where he 

 i-emained until 1914. When the war broke out, he was a student 

 at the University, and a demonstrator in zoology; but he gave 

 up his University work in order to enlist, joining the Army 

 Medical Corps in May, 1915, After two voyages in a hospital- 

 ship, he transferred to the Infantry, qualifying for the i^ost of 

 lieutenant. But as there was no vacancy available, he left for 



