$6 The South Australian Naturalist. 



CHAIRMAN'S ADDRESS. 



— Field Naturalists' Section of the Royal Society. 



Ladies and Gentlemen: 



The various Reports presented to you this evening give 

 you a fairly complete \'iew of the work of the Section during 

 the year. Members of Field Naturalist Societies are regarded 

 by most people as harmless cranks, addicted to the use of 

 lengthy words, and in many instances fond of airing a very 

 useless lot of knowledge, useless that is in the sense of not 

 having a market value. Very few outsiders consider the 

 Nature-student in his true light as a pioneer of science. Yet 

 upon the patient observations and investigations of number- 

 less Nature lovers are based some of the greatest triumphs of 

 scientific achievement. The collection of facts must ever be 

 the basis of true science, not less important than the classi- 

 fication of those facts into ordered knowledge to be followed 

 by generalisation and application. 



Botanical research in particular might give results of 

 enormous value to our great Commonwealth of Australia, as 

 it has already done in such countries as the United States. 

 In our own State of South Australia, botanical research is 

 capable of giving us a more varied production. There may 

 well be untried plants suitable to our soils which might prove 

 of immense economic importance. One mght instance such 

 a well-known example as the common "peanut.** This 

 humble plant in a few years has become a most valuable crop 

 in U.S. 



A little known plant of great economic value is the 

 guayule, a shrub found growing wild in Mexico in arid districts 

 with a low rainfall and in poor limestone soils. By patient 

 investigation and oareful selection a most valuable variety has 

 been established, which is yieldinig enormous quantities of 

 inibber on large plantations and giving up to £600 per acre 

 profit. 



The study of insects, "bug-hunting" as our American 

 friends call it, promises to give results quite as startling and 

 economically as valuable. One can only refer to Mr. Lea*8 

 studies of the life history of the wheat weevil and the conse- 

 quent saving of millions of bushels of wheat during the war 

 time as one of the outstanding instances of the importance of 

 such studies. 



Man's triumphs over Nature are conditioned by his know- 

 ledge, a knowledge that may be attained only by patient 

 investigation. 



