PRESIDENTS ADDRESS. 789 



tions), whose sole duty it is to investigate the botany of New 

 South Wales, is largely seized with its duty in the matter of 

 botanical work, but I hope the time is not far distant when our 

 well-to-do citizens will feel moved to devote a portion of their 

 wealth to the advancement of botanical work irrespective of the 

 political borders of the Australian States. It is, in fact, 

 impossible to investigate the botany of any one State without 

 overstepping the territory of others, but there is much virgin 

 country yet within New South Wales, and I trust the plea I 

 have advanced will not be in vain. 



7. Hybridisation Work in New South Wales. 



During the past year an interesting Orchid hybrid raised by 

 one of our Members (Mr. F. GTodwin, gardener to Dr. John Hay) 

 was exhibited before this Society. It is Cymhidium Lowianum 

 X C. eburneum, and it is figured and commented upon in the 

 Gardeners' Chronicle, 13th July, 1901, p. 25. The statements 

 are made, " This is the first, so far as our knowledge goes, cross- 

 raised and flowered in Australia. . . . The flowers measured 

 5J inches across, which is quite equal to the standard in point of 

 size." 



For an account of the extensive and successful work that has 

 been carried out in Europe and America in regard to the cross- 

 fertilization of plants, one need not go further than the records 

 of the Hybridisation Conference held in London in 1899, which 

 was fully reported in gardening and botanical journals, and in 

 the Journal of the Ro3^al Horticultural Society. Mr. Peter Barr's 

 address on Hybridisation before the Royal Horticultural Society 

 of Victoria in August, 1900, on cross-fertilising daffodils is valu- 

 able, and so also are the papers on the same subject by Mr. H. 

 H. B. Bradley, of Sydney, in the "Australian Agriculturist" for 

 October and November, 1900. 



Mr. Julius H. Camfield, a Member ot this Society, contributed 

 a useful little paper to the same Journal in its issue of November. 

 1901, in which he makes suggestions for experiments with certain 

 native plants. 



