90 PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS—SECTION D. 
collector or grower of his specimens. He was by no means con- 
servative on the subject of Linnean genera. In his fourth paper, 
read before the Linnean Society in 1798 (Trans. Vol. iv., 1798), 
he proposed and gave the characters of twenty new genera, of 
which nineteen were Australian ; and of these eighteen are still 
recognised. Finally, Sir James took care of his type specimens. 
They were available to Robert Brown when required, and 
they are still extant in possession of the Linnean Society. 
Even more interesting and important was the work of 
Labillardiere, the French naturalist, who in 1791 accompanied 
D’Entrecasteaux in his voyage in search of La Pérouse. 
Labillardiere was an accomplished botanist as well as an en- 
thusiastic collector. He was singularly unfortunate in regard 
to his very limited opportunities for collecting. Two brief visits 
to Tasmania, and one unfavourable opportunity for collecting 
on the mainland and on one of the off-lying islands, gave him 
very little chance of making a satisfactory collection. If he 
had had the opportunity of visiting Port Jackson his results 
would have been vastly different. His standpoint was very much 
that of Sir James Smith—the artificial system of Linnzeus. 
But he brought personal knowledge to his task, and he worked 
out his complete collection, the best that circumstances allowed 
him to make. He was not conservative on the subject of Linnean 
genera. His work is a separate publication (7), which takes ac- 
count of about 265 species, and as far as possible every, or 
nearly every, species is illustrated by good outline drawings. 
Perhaps even more valuable than the actual accomplish- 
ment of so much work, may have been the stimulus which 
Labillardiere’s visit applied to the British interest in the Aus- 
tralian flora, and the share which it may have had in bringing 
about the visit of Robert Brown. In 1806, Dryander published 
his “Chloris” (4), a particularly interesting landmark. The 
number of species herein catalogued is about 376. Allowance 
has to be made for the fact that Labillardiére’s “ Specimen” 
was issued in parts, and that the work was not quite completed 
when the “Chloris” was published. The list is arranged ac- 
cording to the artificial system of Linnzus, but the modern 
botanist has no difficulty in translating it into modern phrase- 
ology. One can see that when used with discretion the “ Systema 
Nature” was not at all a bad standpoint from which to produce 
good cataloguing. The “Chloris” is particularly interesting, 
however, as showing the state of affairs when Robert Brown was 
just preparing to appear on the scene. It shows, too, that up 
to that time Labillardiére had done the larger share of the 
work. 
(j) Nove Hollandize Plantarum Specimen, 2 vols., 1804-06. A 
(:) Chloris Noyze Hollandis, or Catalogue of the Plants of New Holland and Van 
Diemen’s Land, Annals of Botany, ii., 1806, pp. 504-532. 
