president's address. 685 



formation. Six papers dealing with this or other Bacteriological 

 subjects were contributed, and already have been published and 

 distributed. One pupil received a full course of laboratory- 

 instruction. 



The Covington drawings illustrating the Cruise of H.M.S. 

 *' Beagle," to which your attention was invited in July last, have 

 been framed and now adorn the walls of the Hall. May they 

 help to stimulate a perennial interest in the records of the historic 

 Voyage and what came of it ! 



1. — Introductory, Codes of Laws. 



It seems strange that the principles which underlie the 

 bestowal of botanical names have not hitherto been brought 

 before this Society, at all events except in a casual manner; and 

 I venture to make an attempt to supply this hiatus. 



Much of the voluminous correspondence and polemic writings 

 on the subject in European and American publications are only 

 of indirect interest to us because the vast majority of plants 

 referred to are non-Australian. I propose only to touch upon 

 points that are of special interest to Australian botanists. 



The oldest set of Linnean rules governing botanical nomen- 

 clature and including many descriptive definitions, are contained 

 in the 'Philosophia Botanica' of Linnaeus himself, a copy of which, 

 dated Vienna, 1755, is before me. It remained in activ^e use for 

 at least a century. 



The principal code of laws at present respected by botanists 

 throughout the world is : — 'Lois de la Nomenclature Botanique 

 adoptees par le Congres international de Botanique, tenu a Paris 

 en Aout 1867,' par Alph. de Candolle (1867). 



This is the first and foremost of the modern attempts to reduce 

 the laws underlying the principles of botanical nomenclature to 

 order, and it has been of incalculable benefit to botanical science. 



These " lois" have been supplemented by 'Nouvelles Remarques 

 sur la nomenclature botanique' (1883) by the same author, a 

 work which is also indispensable. 

 45 



