PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS— SECTION C. 79 



to furnish carefully prepared and cerrified extracts from, and 

 copies of original descriptions from, the rarer botanical works. 



Co-ordination of Work. 



With so many men and women, and so much equipment 

 available, we certainl}- ha\e the means at our dis])osal for carry- 

 ing out a botanical sur\ey on the lines I have indicated. I fee'l 

 sure that we are all anxious to do (3ur share, but we have been 

 working alone, often overlapphig one another, often wasting- 

 time for lack of the assistance that each might give the other 

 if he or she knew that it was needed. Our efforts have been to 

 some extent wasted because too individualistic, having no definite 

 relation to a wfll-i)lanned and well-organized scheme oi botani- 

 cal survey. 



A Botanical Conference. 



I have already suggested a Conference of botanists to dis- 

 cuss the ])hyto-geographical regions for the purpose of com- 

 pilation of local Floras. This Conference should also consider 

 the best means of conducting a botanical survev under existing 

 circumstances. The Conference might well ccjnstitute itself a 

 permanent Botanical Survey Advisory Council, with an Execu- 

 tive Committee authorized to approach the Government with 

 a definite programme (as laid down by the Council), and an 

 application for such funds as might be re(|uired to carry out its 

 programme. Sub-committees should have charge of separate 

 branches of the survey, and the Executive should consist of the 

 Chairman, and the convener of each Sub-committee. The Coun- 

 cil should be self-perpetuating, should elect its own Chairman 

 yearly, and should frame its own rules and methods of procedure. 



Each member of the Council should take up some ]jart of 

 the work, however small, as he or she is best able, and endeav- 

 our to carry it through on the lines laid dov/n by the Conference. 



The several branches of survey work should be sub- 

 divided, and the obviously fair way of distributing them would 

 be with relation to the geographical |X)sition of the workers, 

 somewhat as follows : — 



Ecology. — This requires detailed work in each Province- 



Western Provi^ice. — The Professor of Botany at the 



S.A. College, Capetown. 



Eastern Provi)ice. — The Professor of Botany a: the 



Rhodes University College. 



Orange Free State. — The Professor of Botany at the 



Grey University College. 



Natal. — The Professor of Botany at the Natal Univer- 

 sity College. 



Traiis-i'aal. — Professor Aloss, who has >pecialized in 



Ecology as well as in Taxo- 



. nomv. 



