president's address. 669 



death last year. Ho was an enthusiastic student of our native 

 flora, to our knowledge of which he made various contributions. 

 He was for five years a member of this Society and took a 

 considerable interest in its meetings. He bequeathed to it his 

 extensive herbarium of dried plants, and over a hundred books 

 on various branches of natural history, many of them valuable 

 and useful additions to the Society's library. 



The Rev. Dr. William Woolls, long a member and latterly a 

 Vice-President, was well known for his extensive and accurate 

 knowledge of Australian Botany. Born in 1814 at Winchester, 

 he came out to this colony as a lad of 17, and shortly afterwards 

 obtained a mastership in the King's School, Parramatta. After- 

 wards he came to Sydney and engaged in journalistic work and 

 private tuition till he was offered a classical mastership at the 

 Sydney College. Later he returned to Parramatta, where he 

 opened a private school. In 1873, at the age of 59, he took holy 

 orders in the Church of England, and held for ten years the 

 incumbency and rural deanery of Richmond. For many years he 

 gave much of his leisure to the study of botany, and he rendered 

 valuable assistance to Bentham and Mueller in collecting specimens 

 to be made use of in the elaborating of their '^Flora Australiensis." 

 He obtained the degree of Ph.D. from the University of Goettingen 

 for his thesis on the Plants of Parramatta. He was the author of 

 two volumes of essays on scientific and other subjects, and of 

 several botanical papers, some of which have been published in the 

 " Proceedings " of this Society. 



Of the loss sustained by biological science in the death of the 

 veteran comparative anatomist, Sir Richard Owen (whom this 

 Society honoured itself by electing an honorary member many 

 years ago), it is scarcely needful for me to speak at length on the 

 present occasion. A worthy estimate of Owen's scientific work 

 and its bearing on the progress of science in Australia would, 

 even were I competent to undertake it, require an Address or a 

 series of Addresses to itself. Let me, however, recall to you the 

 fact that in the rich record of Owen's half-century of scientific 

 work not a few of the most notable achievements have been epoch- 



