50 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. XXIV, 



have been started and ceased to be, at last the New South Wales 

 Field Naturalists' Club, founded in 1900, seems to have taken 

 hold of the nature lovers in that State, and to be meeting with 

 great success ; so much so that last year it commenced the 

 publication of a quarterly journal. However, I cannot help 

 saying here that to take the title Australian Naturalist for its 

 publication was hardly justifiable, though at the moment to say 

 what other short title it could have adopted is somewhat difficult, 

 as the name of Sydney Naturalist might perhaps have been 

 thought too local to meet all requirements. 



" The corresponding society in South Australia is a section of 

 the Royal Society of South Australia, and is nearly as old as our 

 Club. It has always made a great feature of its excursions, and 

 a party of forty or fifty setting out for a drive to the Mount Lofty 

 Ranges has been no uncommon occurrence. With such a man 

 as the late Prof. Ralph Tate to rely on, South Australia has 

 always been well to the fore in natural history investigations, as a 

 glance at the admirable index to the first twenty-four volumes of 

 the proceedings of the Royal Society of South Australia, recently 

 published, will show. This has been excellently compiled by 

 Mr. R. J. M. Clucas, and reflects great credit on his industry 

 and patience. Would that such an index to our Naturalist 

 existed. 



" Adelaide can, however, claim the establishment of the first 

 junior society for natural history in the Boys' Field Club, which 

 has for many years done good work in encouraging the study of 

 natural history among school boys, and has carried out several 

 ' camps-out ' on a very large scale. 



" In Queensland, with such a hard worker as Mr. F. M. Bailey 

 for Government Botanist, natural science, mainly botany, has for 

 years been greatly in evidence, while the work of Mr. C. De Vis 

 in zoology, and Dr. Turner and others in entomology, must not 

 be forgotten ; but it is only comparatively recently that the Bris- 

 bane Field Naturalists' Club has been started, and as yet has not 

 commenced publication of its proceedings. For many years a 

 Natural History Society existed at Rockhampton, but, not having 

 heard of it for some time, I fear it has lapsed. 



" Tasmania boasts a Royal Society of considerable antiquity, 

 and in its Proceedings are a large number of papers dealing with 

 natural history. Two years ago a Field Naturalists' Club was 

 founded at Hobart, and in the current number of the Naturalist 

 will be found a notice of the first number of the Tasmanian 

 Naturalist, which it is to be hoped will have a long and useful 

 career. 



*' Western Australia was the last of the Australian States to 

 found a scientific society, and I think I am right in saying that 

 the Mueller Botanical Society, founded in 1899 (?) in memory of 



