42 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. — SECTION C. 



" The Flora of this part of the world is of extreme interest. It deserves 

 to be carefully and exhaustively studied, and numerous plants, now in danger 

 of becoming extinct, should be preserved in some central spot for the obser- 

 vation of students. On the economic influences of such a central institution 

 it is needless to enlarge. There are hundreds of problems connected with 

 the cultivation of industrial plants in South Africa awaiting solution, and 

 these could only be dealt with at an institution specially devoted to scientific 

 research, where careful trials could be conducted extending over many years." 



That these criticisms are almost as true to-day as when they 

 were written, and that South Africa still possesses no scientific 

 establishment with the organisation and the equipment of a 

 botanic garden, are hardly matters for surprise. The subdivi- 

 sion of authority and the divided interests of the South African 

 colonies have prevented that concerted action which was 

 necessary to bring" the establishment of a South African botanic 

 garden within the range of practical politics; and the older 

 colonies have not, in recent years, l3een in a position to 

 find the funds needful to maintain separate institutions which, 

 however great their value to the commvmities they would 

 serve, could only make an indirect return, and that not imme- 

 diate, for the expenditure they would occasion. But with the 

 achievement of Union, the more serious obstacles have dis- 

 appeared, and there is not likely to be a more favourable oppor- 

 tunity than the present for bringing this question once more 

 into prominence. 



It will be well to consider what it is that we mean by a 

 botanic garden. An establishment which may justly bear this 

 name performs many functions, and the complexity of its acti- 

 vities would be specially great in a country like South Africa — 

 a country in which the climatic and other factors affecting 

 plant-life are so remarkably diversified ; in which the native 

 vegetation is of such exceptional interest; in which so little 

 systematic effort has been expended in the experimental culti- 

 vation of native and exotic plants of ascertained or problematic 

 economic value; in which such vast areas are awaiting utiliza- 

 tion ; in which the pastoral and agricultural pursuits, upon 

 which the real prosperity of the new South Africa depends, 

 offer for solution so many problems of far-reaching economic 

 importance. 



The foundation of all botanical investigation, as well as of all 

 those researches into the problems of plant life which fall within 

 the respective provinces of the chemist, the forester and the 

 agriculturist, is a knowledge of the native vegetation. We 



have in South Africa a group of floral regions which are second 

 to none in scientific interest. With the exception of a few 

 areas, which are very small indeed in comparison with the 

 greatness of the country as a whole, none of these has been 

 thoroughly exploited by the plant-collector and the systematic 

 botanist; and our knowledge of the plants of many extensive 

 tracts is still hardly more than embryonic. From our present 

 point of view the truth of these statements does not rest merely 

 upon the fact that there are yet many South African species 

 undescribed and unnamed. To complete the catalogue of 

 South African species, not only of phanerogams but also of 



