798 president's address. 



Then follows a list of 213 species of Casuarinete, with botanical 

 names and English equivalents. Mr. Swainson has a note : — 



" In several instances different species and numbers appear under the same 

 specific name. All these must therefore be considered provisionary, and 

 arose from not keeping a memorandum of the names I had already used. 

 Without a single book to refer to, I have been obliged to leave several of the 

 latter species unnamed (although described) rom having exhausted all the 

 specific names I can think of that were at all applicable to the species." 



There were two portfolios " with drawings and dissections, 

 natural size and magnified, of different species and genera* of 

 EucalyptidemJ^ . . . "These drawings will be personally 

 delivered to the Curator before I leave Melbourne." 



I have not been able to trace what became of the drawings, 

 descriptions (of E^icalyptidece and C asuari7iece) and of the speci- 

 mens. Mueller probably allowed them to find their way to the 

 rubbish heap. 



Hooker's Journal of Botany, vi. 186 (1854), has some further 

 information in regard to Swainson's Botanical Report. Lieut.- 

 Governor Latrobe appointed Mr. Swainson "to study and report 

 on the timber of the colony (Victoria), chiefly Eucalypti and 

 CasicarineceJ' The Journal contains a letter, dated 2nd October, 

 1853, from Swainson to Latrobe, which is not contained in the 

 official document I have already quoted. 



In connection with the question of variation and limits of 

 species, I would invite attention to Darwin's " Origin of Species." 

 I have used the sixth edition, and chapter ii., "Variation under 

 Nature," deserves to be carefully studied. The extracts I give 

 have been taken from that chapter. "The general tendency of 

 the youngt naturalist will be to make many species, for he will 

 become impressed, just like the pigeon or poultry-fancier before 



* What these genera are I do not know. Swainson refers to CantJiocarpus 

 (Red Gum); Tricanthus (the "Straight Stringybark "), of which "there are 

 numberless species;" Microcarpns (Native Box), of which he collected "a 

 few species." 



t If Darwin had known of Swainson's exploit he would have seen that this 

 tendency is not confined to youth. 



