Section D. 



BIOLOGY. 



ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT, 



J. H. MAIDEN, F,L.S., 



Government Botanist and Director of the Botanic Gardens, Sydney. 



A CENTURY OF BOTANICAL ENDEAVOR IN SOUTH 

 AUSTRALIA. 



In casting about for a subject, I have decided to choose one which 

 "will have local interest for South Australian botanists, and I trust 

 my address may not be without value for them. I have been to some 

 trouble to ascertain my facts ; at the same time, while they cannot 

 be absolutely complete, they may serve as a nucleus for further accre- 

 tions. 



Being a botanist I naturally choose a botanical subject, and then 

 I reflect that a theme of general biological import would be appropriate 

 for the Section. I also am reminded that I am the first botanical 

 President of this Section, all my predecessors being zoologists or physi- 

 ologists, with the important exception of the versatile Professor Tate, 

 botanist, conchologist, palaeontologist, and geologist. Adelaide was 

 his home, the centre of his intellectual activity, and we regret that 

 we shall see his genial face and listen to his clear-cut statements no 

 m.ore. 



!?o that while many of my zoological friends will have the polite- 

 ness to listen to a discourse in which they are not directly interested, 

 I am sure they will pardon me when I remind them that botanical 

 members of this Association have been very frequently in a similar 

 situation. 



It is not quite easy to classify some of the papers read before this 

 Section, but I find that during the 10 previous meetings we have had, 

 say, 99 zoological papers and 70 botanical ones. The botanists are 

 numerically less than their zoological brethren, but it has occurred to 

 me that they are strong enough to stand alone and to form a Botanical 

 Section. I would submit that the establishment of separate Zoological 

 and Botanical Sections would be an advantage. Botanists and zoolo- 

 gists are alike in that, in visiting a centre, they are anxious to get to 

 work in the field, so that, if my proposal be given effect to, the botanists 

 would not be delayed in this object until the whole of the zoological 

 papers are read, and vice versa. The establishment of a botanical 

 section of the British Association has undoubtedly resulted in the 

 -advancement of botanical science, and I ask consideration for my sugges- 



