66 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS SECTION C. 



rounded them'. Among the earliest plant collectors were Dr. 

 Gueinzius, Messrs. Vance, Williamson, Plant, and Armitage, 

 followed by Sanderson, Sutherland, Hallack, Buchanan, Fannin, 

 Gerrard, and McKen (the first Curator of the Durban Botanic 

 Gardens). I have given further details regarding the history of 

 Botany in Natal elsewhere,* but since we are meeting here in th& 

 town, where his chief lifework was accomplished, it is only fitting 

 that I should again pay tribute to the long continued, splendid 

 botanical labours of Dr. J. Medley Wood. 



He arrived in Natal in 1852, and died at Durban in 1915, at' 

 the advanced age of 88. It was my privilege to know him only 

 during the last five years of his life, but in spite of his age I knew 

 him as an active worker, for he was keenly interested in his subject 

 to the very last day of his life. His botanical work in Natal 

 extended over sixty years. His early collecting was done while 

 he lived at Inanda, where he was visited in 1876 by A. Rehmann. 

 In 1882 he succeeded McKen as Curator of the Durban Botanic 

 Gardens. His preliminary catalogue of indigenous Natal plants 

 was published in 1894. It was soon largely added to by his con- 

 tinued activities, and in 1907 appeared in the form of a "Hand- 

 book to the Flora of Natal." Still later, a Revised List of the- 

 Flora of Natal with two subsequent appendices appeared. His 

 "Natal Plants," in which altogether 600 species were illustrated, 

 did much to popularise botany in Natal. By building up the- 

 Durban Herbarium and by exchanging plants with other herbaria 

 in various parts of the world, Wood made the flora of Natal known 

 far outside its own boundaries. Many new species were described 

 by himself and a still greater number were sent by him to be 

 described by specialists at Kew and elsewhere. His long-continued, 

 patient work has cleared many difficulties from our road, and he 

 has thoroughly earned the lasting gratitude of all of us who have 

 to follow him. 



I must pass over the work of many who were associated with 

 Medley Wood as well as of others. Fourcade investigated and 

 reported on the forests of Natal in 1889. Justus Thode contributed 

 a considerable amount to our knowledge of field botany and 

 ecology. Dr. T. R. Sim has made the trees and shrubs, the ferns, 

 and the mosses and hepatics his special subjects of study, 

 but he has collected widely other plants as well. He has lately 

 very generously handed over his herbarium of flowering plants to 

 the Botany Department of the Natal University College, and he 

 continues to assist us in adding to it. 



During his tenure of the office of Conservator of Forests for 

 Natal Mr. J. S. Henkel did much to further our knowledge of the 

 plant ecology of Natal, and he demonstrated widely to farmers and 

 tree planters that forestry is really applied ecology. The group 

 of the fungi have been studied not only by Medley Wood, but by 

 Dr. Pole-Evans and his staff, especially by Dr. Ethel Doidge, who 



* Bews, J. W. "An Introduction to the Flora of Natal and Zulu- 

 land." Pietermaritzburg. 1921. 



