PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS— SKC'TU)N C 



// 



Durban, and I am happy to be able to state that a l)eginninjj 

 is being- made at Johannesburg. 



Regional Herbaria. 



The work of the local herbaria could be rendered more 

 effective if each restricted its in\ostigations to the flora of the 

 region in which it is situated, as defined by the proposed botanical 

 conference. It means a great waste of energy- for each her- 

 baritim to endeavour to make its collections completely repre- 

 sentative of the whole of Sottth Africa; every collection made 

 outside an area means the expenditure of time and money which 

 might be devoted to the increase of knowledge of its own region. 

 So. also, where two herbaria already exist in the same town, 

 as at Capetown and Pretoria, economy could be effected by a 

 nnitual agreement to avoid overlapping. 



One of the functions of the Regional Herbaria should be 

 the naming of si)ecimens for collectors within the region con- 

 trolled l)y that particular herbarium, inchiding material sub- 

 mitted by (iovernment departments; for this latter a specific 

 subsidy might be asked from Government. By restricting the 

 scope of the herbarium to the plants of a given area 

 more room would, of course, be available for keeping a good 

 series of specimens showing the distribution and variation of 

 the species within the region, thus adding greatly to the value 

 of the collection. Types of species foimd within the region 

 should, as far as possible, be preserved in the Regional 

 Herbarium. 



A Central Herbarii'm. 



In addition to the Regional Herbaria, there should be, for 

 convenience of comparison or study, one herbaritmi containing 

 as far as {possible at least one typical rej^resentative of each 

 species known to occtu" in South Africa. It should be the duty 

 of this Central Herbarium to compare doubtful or critical mater- 

 ial for the other herbaria. This Central Herbarium should also 

 undertake to have its material critically compared with the types 

 existing in Euroj^ean Herbaria, so that it might become the 

 place of last resort — in South Africa — on questions of doubt. 



One of the obviotis functions of the National Botanic Garden 

 at Kirstenbosc'h is to maintain such a National or Central Her- 

 barium. The Bolus Herbarium, with its large number of criti- 

 cally compared specimens, would form an excellent nucleus for 

 a central herbarium. 



The Central Herbarium should, for some time to come, 

 maintain a thoroughly cjualified Systematist to compare critical 

 material with the types and other authentic material at Kew and 

 the British Museum, and to monograph the South African 

 inaterial deposited there, especially in those families dealt with 

 in Volumes I. II, HI and VI of the " Flora Capensis." He — or 

 she — should be not merely a student working for a degree, but a 



