50 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



The usual collections brought home in jars rarely keep the 

 animals prevailing in them when taken for more than a few days, 

 but in this case three species of Rotifera were at hand for over a 

 month, and the Entomostraca long enough to go through their 

 development to the adult form. 



I have only been able to give a fragmentary account of the 

 observations I have had to make at odd moments, but T found it 

 interesting to myself, and trust the relation may have some small 

 points of interest to some present. 



Subsequently to reading the above paper a fully developed 

 Lepidurus appeared in the vessel, which had been overlooked 

 when in the larval stage, and had grown to about half the full 

 size of the adult in the fortnight the jar had been laid aside. 



SOME OBSERVATIONS ON PRE-LINNEAN BOTANISTS. 



By J. G. EuEHMANN, F.L.S. 

 (Read hefore the Field Naturalists'' Cluhof Victoria, 8th August, 1S98J 

 The library attached to the National Herbarium of Melbourne 

 contains a number of works by botanists of olden times, brought 

 together by the late Baron von Mueller as opportunities offered, 

 and it may interest the members of this Club to have a look at 

 them and hear something about their authors. At the outset I 

 must disclaim any pretension to having made great original investi- 

 gations into this matter ; such could only be done satisfactorily 

 in European centres, with access to the necessary extensive litera- 

 ture, and requires the most erudite knowledge, combined with 

 much patient labour. There is, however, as far as I know, no 

 special work in the English language devoted to this subject, 

 except that of Dr. Pulteney, published in the last century, and 

 this is extremely rare — in fact, not even in our Public Library, 

 perhaps not in Australia. My information has been mostly 

 culled from the German works of Professors Meyer, Jessen, and 

 Sachs, and I will confine my remarks principally to those authors 

 of whose works I can place a copy before you. 



I need not dwell upon the investigations made by the ancients, 

 as this would be beyond the scope of my address, for as there 

 v/ere " brave men before Agamemnon," so there were keen 

 observers of nature even before Theophrastos, the pupil of Aris- 

 totle, who may perhaps fairly be called the first botanist. Men- 

 tion should, however, be made of Dioscorides, a Greek physician 

 and a contemporary of Plinius, whose descriptions' of plants and 

 their medicinal properties formed the standard work of reference 

 for many centuries. 



During the period which we term the Middle Ages, I need 

 hardly remind you, the pursuit of the sciences was in a very 

 backward state, and botany fared perhaps even worse than her 



