PRESIDENTS ADDRESS. 1227 



which he has arrived are to be forthwith published in the Transac- 

 tions of the Royal Society. I am not at present aware of any 

 other Zoological work of special Australian interest being carried 

 out abroad. 



In General Botanical work Baron von Mueller is of course to 

 the front with the Lithograms of the Myoporinous Plants of 

 Australia, with 74 excellent figures of Eremophila and Myopovmn ; 

 has issued a supplement to his Census, " Descriptions of Plants 

 collected in Capricornic Australia," and a supplement to his list of 

 " Australian Fungs." Mr. F. M. Bailey continues his Flora of 

 Queensland ; and Dr. Woolls has examined the Eucalypts of the 

 Wellington-Mudgee district in a communication to the ' Sydney 

 Mail.' 



I have on many occasions urged the study of Natural History as 

 an essential part of general education. And if I could think that 

 any real progress was being made in that direction, I should not 

 have troubled you again with this matter. 



But while an improvement is certainly perceptible in the public 

 appreciation of those Sciences which are seen to lead to a sort of 

 'payment by results' — and it is well for us that such is the case — 

 I do not see much evidence of a more serious pursuit of Science for 

 the sake of Science, or to speak more generally for knowledge for 

 its own sake, in the educational establishments of the country 

 at large. 



And the conviction which I entertain that such a pursuit is 

 natural and lawful, and that it is even (to some extent) obligatory 

 upon civilized men, and that it fails to be recognised in that light 

 entirely on account of a pedantic, irrational and unnatural system 

 of public education, must serve as my excuse for troubling you 

 once more with my considerations. 



To commence with a recital of the principal difficulties which 

 stand in the way of Scientific education becoming an integral and 

 indispensable factor in our public education, I would draw your 

 attention to four in particular, the first of which seems almost 

 irremovable, the second only requires wise legislation, the third 



