790 president's address. 



the management of the trustees of the Australian Museum, the 

 Macarthurs, the McLeays, and the Kings being represented on 

 the Board. These gentlemen recommended Mr. John Carne 

 Bidwill, who was appointed Curator and duly installed. Although 

 the Home Government claimed the right of appointment, 

 they would probably have approved of Bidwill, but, before the 

 news of his appointment reached home, the nomination by Dr. 

 Lindley of Mr. Charles Moore had been approved, to the great 

 annoyance of Sir William Hooker, Director of the Royal Botanical 

 Gardens at Kew, who claimed the right to be consulted, although 

 he had no objection to Moore personally, and became afterwards 

 very friendly with him. Moore, having been allowed time to pay a 

 farewell visit to his friends, did not arrive in Sydney till 1S47. 



Bidwill's friends, including Sir Stuart Alexander Donaldson, 

 were very angry at his being ousted, and the trustees of the 

 Museum retired from the management of the Gardens. Donaldson, 

 with the view of starving Moore out, moved the reduction of the 

 annual parliamentary vote for the maintenance of the Gardens 

 to £150. Having failed in this, he tried to get them cut up 

 and sold in allotments, and fortunately failed in this also. 



Moore, during his tenure of office for nearly half a centuiy, 

 remodelled the greater part of the Gardens, and made so many 

 alterations, additions, and improvements, that he may well be 

 considered to be their founder, in their present form at all events. 



In 1893, in conjunction with Mr. Ernst Betche, he published 

 a handbook of the flora of New South Wales, which is useful, 

 but would have been more acceptable to local botanists if he 

 had followed the system employed by Bentham in the " Flora 

 Australiensis," instead of that adopted by Mueller. He was 

 superannuated in 1896 in order to make way for Mr. J. H. 

 Maiden, the present Curator. 



During Moore ; s curatorship, a Botanical Museum and 

 National Herbarium, adjoining the Cui'ator's residence, was 

 erected, and occasionally used for the delivery of botanical 

 lectures. This has lately been greatly enlarged and improved, 

 and made worthy of the noble gardens in which it stands. 



