22 PRESIDENTS ADDRESS. 



possible only as an heroic struggle against ill-health and at the 

 cost of the greatest self-denial and care. 



Further particulars of the movement will be found in recent 

 issues of the British Medical and other journals; and the Consul 

 for Denmark will be glad to aftbrd information and his co-operation. 



The subject of the erection of a statue, as a permanent 

 memorial of Sir Joseph Banks, has been warmly discussed in the 

 columns of the newspapers during the last few montlis. It has 

 also been brought under the notice of the Society by the pro- 

 moter." Sir Joseph Banks' claims upon the gratitude of posterity 

 appeal to most sections of the community — among others to 

 scientific men, who are thus interested in the subject of the pro- 

 posed memorial. 



The correspondence in the newspapers unmistakably revealed 

 some lack of exact knowledge respecting Sir Joseph Banks on 

 the part of some of the writers who took part in it. This point 

 is not without interest because it indicates how large a share an 

 actual want of authentic information — which, so far as Australia 

 is concerned, is more or less pardonable — has had to do with the 

 Empire's delayed appreciation of one of its great men. 



It is well-known that the younger Linnaeus instituted the 

 genus Banksia for the reception of the native honeysuckles which 

 first came under the notice of Banks and Solanderat Botany Bay 

 and elsewhere, during the voyage of the Endeavour. Perhaps it 

 is not so well known how Linnteus himself desired to see the 

 term applied. Writing to his friend, John Ellis, of London, in 

 1771, he said: — "I beseech you, by your warm regard for me, 

 and your sense of what is just and fair, to persuade Solander to 

 send me some specimens of plants from Banksia or Terra aiis- 

 tralis, that I may have some idea of the vegetable productions of 

 that unknown region. . . . The newly found country ought 

 to be named Banksia, from its discoverer, as America was from 

 Americus."* 



* A Selection of the Correspondence of Linnteus and other Naturalists 

 from the Original Manuscripts. By 8ir James Edward Smith, M.D. , F K.S. , 

 President of the Linnean Society. Vol.ii. pp.273, 275(1^21). 



