224 NOTES ON THE PUBLICATIONS. 



1849, oi" early in 1850, the three societies amalgamated, or, 

 to be more correct, the " Tasmanian Society " and the 

 Botanical and Horticultural Society were absorbed by the 

 Royal Society of Van Diemen's Land. Though the Royal 

 Society did not issue any Journal till May, 1849, its year 

 of birth was in 1844, and it is therefore in its sixty-sixth 

 year. 



2. PUBLICATIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY 

 OF VAN DIEMEN'S LAND. 



Though the older society went under the name of 

 " Tasmanian " Society, and its publication was called the 

 " Tasmanian " Journal, this name did not survive, prob- 

 ably because the oiBcial name of the island was Van 

 Diemen's Land. 



During the first four years of its existence the Royal 

 Society published annual reports only (1845 to 1848 in- 

 clusive), and during these years the Tasmanian Journal, 

 though issued by a sister society, was practically the pub- 

 lication of the Royal Society. 



Towards the end of 1848, or early in 1849, the Council 

 of the Royal Society decided to publish a periodical 

 journal under the title, *' Papers and Proceedings of the 

 Royal Society of Van Diemen's Land." The first part 

 of the first volume was issued in May, 1849; therefore, 

 the last volume of the Tasmanian Journal, and the first 

 part of the first volume of the Papers and Proceedings of 

 the Royal Society of Van Diemen's Land were published 

 in the same year, the latter apparently succeeding the 

 former. 



The next volume of the " Papers and Proceedings " 

 was issued as Part II. of Volume I. in January, 1850, and 

 from now a yearly volume was published up to 1855 in- 

 clusive. Lhi fortunately a very bad plan was adopted in 

 numbering the publications. The journal issued was an 

 annual publication, but the volumes were not. Three 

 annual parts, published in three succeeding years, formed 

 one volume. This led subsequently to a great confusion, 

 which became worse, because no separate title pages or 

 table of contents were issued for the volume. With the 

 exception of Part I. of Vol. I., the table of contents were 



