PRESIDENTS ADDRESS. 



767 



east coast of Australia; but these enthusiastic botanists made 

 good use of the short time allowed them, and availed themselves 

 with equal avidity of every other subsequent opportunity to 

 increase their collections and their knowledge of Australian 

 vegetation. 



It is easy to imagine the delight with which they must have 

 hailed the discovery of the wealth of a flora, then for the first 

 time displayed to scientific and appreciative eyes, the greater part 

 of which was absolutely endemic ; unfortunately they were not 

 here during the blooming season of our most conspicuous flowers, 

 or while the whole neighbourhood was aglow with kaleidoscopic 

 beauty, as it is in early spring. 



One of the most conspicuous genera of the order Proteacece was 

 named Banksia in honour of the discoverer, but the name of Dr. 

 Solander, having been previously utilized for a West Indian 

 solanaceous plant, does not appear among the genera of our 

 flora. 



After the death of Banks, the collections made by him and his 

 assistant, together with considerable further collections, made 

 during Cook's subsequent voyages by the Forsters, Mr. David 

 Nelson, and Mr. William Anderson, were handed over to the 

 British Museum, where, without having ever been published, 

 they were hoarded for long years, as if they had been brought 

 there solely for the purpose of being stored, and, as Bentham 

 complains, became, with Cunningham's subsequent collections, 

 practically unavailable for use. 



From a note of Anderson's, we find that the leaves of Lepto- 

 spermum scopariwm were used as a substitute for Chinese tea, and 

 were found to be of a pleasant taste and smell; hence the popular 

 name of " Tea- tree," not "Ti-tree" as it is often written. 

 Forstera, a Tasmanian genus of Stylidece, was named in honour of 

 the Forsters; Nelsonia, a genus of Acanthacece, in honour of 

 Nelson ; and Andersonia, a genus of Epacridece, in honour of 

 Anderson. 



In 1788 Mr. John White arrived in Sydney as surgeon -general 

 to the settlement, and during seven years collected a considerable 



