PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS~—-SECTION D. 89 
studied collections which, if large, were still miscellaneous, had 
much to do with formulating the foundational knowledge of the 
fauna. The zoologist best qualified for the work was very 
late in appearing. He is not to be met with during the Pre- 
Victorian Era, except in so far as Quoy and Gaimard, and 
Lesson and Garnot, with very limited opportunities, made some 
approximation thereto. But these naturalists saw too much 
of other countries visited on circumnavigating cruises, and not 
enough of Australia to give the Australian fauna the leading 
place in their studies. 
Botanical—From his letter to Hasted (quoted in Hooker’s 
Banks, p. 26) it is known that Sir Joseph fully intended to 
publish a descriptive and illustrated account of the plants 
collected during Cook’s First Voyage, and that he made some 
extensive preparations for doing so. For reasons which have 
been regarded as insoluble, but for which the death of Solander, 
in 1782, is supposed to have been in some measure responsible, 
this project was not carried out. Up to the time of the founda- 
tion of the colony at Port Jackson, in 1788, the only published 
descriptions of Australian plants were those of four species of 
Banksia, from specimens presented by Sir Joseph to Linnzeus, 
and described by his son; some species described by Gartner, 
from fruits or seeds presented to him by Sir Joseph; and of 
some species raised from seeds taken to England also by Sir 
Joseph. 
However much the non-publication of the descriptions of the 
Banksian collection of plants was, and is even still to be de- 
plored on historical and sentimental grounds, it was not in the 
end a matter of so much scientific importance as at the time it 
might have seemed to be, except that it made an opening for a 
commencement with even less complete collections. 
In 1791, Sir James E. Smith, President of the Linnean 
Society, began his series of contributions to a knowledge of the 
Australian flora from the study of specimens raised in England 
from seed, or of collections sent home by Surgeon White, Mr. 
David Burton, Mr. Menzies, and other collectors; and, in some 
cases, of specimens from the Banksian herbarium. As was to 
be expected from the possessor of the Linnean collections and 
library, from his being in a sense the heir of Linnzeus, and from 
his official position, Sir James was an ardent follower of 
Linnean methods and principles, and the upholder of the 
Linnean system. His work is of the cataloguing order, but it 
is distinctly good of its kind, and far ahead of that of the con- 
temporary British zoologists who worked at the Australian 
fauna. He made use of the binomial nomenclature. His de- 
scriptions were full and even elaborate, as a rule; and fre- 
quently were accompanied by good illustrations. He had due 
regard for locality, and he did not ignore the name of the 
