16 INAUGURAL ADDEESS. 



organic world as in the inorganic ; ancT_, to understand his 

 subject in any branch of natural science, the learner has 

 now only to apply himself to trace in the minutest detail 

 the successive steps in the development of the phenomena 

 he desires to study. With energetic teachers such as 

 Hutton, Parker, and Thomas educated in such views, and 

 who, after their arrival in the colony, felt less controversial 

 restraint, it is not wonderful that natural history, and 

 especially biology, should have attracted so many ardent 

 Avorhers, and that the results should have been so good. 



A rough test may be applied by comparing the number 

 of species of animals and plants which had been described 

 before the foundation of the colony and those iip to the 

 present time. In 1840 Dr. Grray's list in Dieffenbach^s work 

 gives the number of described species of animals as 594. 

 The number now recognised and described is 5,498. The 

 number of INIammalia has been doubled through the more 

 accurate study of the seals, whales, and dolphins. Then, 

 the list of birds has been increased from 84 to 195, chiefly 

 through the exertions of Sir Walter Buller, Avhose great 

 standard work on our Avifauna has gained credit and renown 

 for the whole colony. The number of fishes and Molluscahas 

 been more than trebled, almost wholly by the indefatigable 

 work of our Secretary, Professor Hutton. But the greatest 

 increase is in the group which Dr. Gray placed as Anuu- 

 losa, which, chiefly through the discovery of new forms of 

 insect-life, has risen from 156 in 1840 to 4,295, of which 

 over two thousand are new beetles described by Captain 

 Broun, of Auckland. 



When we turn to botany we find that Dieffenbach, who 

 appears to have carefully collated all the references to 

 date 1840, declares the flora to comprise 632 plants of 

 all kinds, and, as I have already mentioned, did not 

 expect that many more would be found. But by the 

 time of the publication of Hooker's " Flora of New 

 Zealand" (1863), a work which has been of inestimable 

 value to our colonists, we find the number of indi- 

 genous plants described has been increased to 2,451. 

 Armed with the invaluable sruidancc afforded bv Hooker's 



