1<S President's Address. 



be much better conceived, in a phytoclimatic point of view, 

 than I had at first thought them to be, when regarded as 

 phytogeographical regions ;" and again : " tlie data he lias 

 collected and methodised will be found to be an important 

 contribution to the scientific study of geographical distribu- 

 tion ;" and yet again : " the undoubted influence of climato- 

 logical and other physical conditions on the progress, 

 dispersion, and life-history of species is here worked out 

 with a care and detail deserving the attention of all physi- 

 ologists, as well as of all cultivators of exotic plants." 

 Such a testimony borne by so high an authority cannot 

 fail to have its due weight with you, especially when we 

 remember the Darwinian proclivities of Bentham, to which 

 system Grisebach was a very strong and decided opponent, 

 regarding it, as he did, as a doctrine of transmutation. 

 Even in its most moderate application Darwinianism found 

 in him an uncompromising foe. He was too close an 

 observer of nature, too rigid in his method of induction, 

 and too just and accurate in his reasoning, to have any 

 sympathy with those speculators who, when such a 

 desperate course is regarded as necessary for the support 

 of their rash hypotheses, do not scruple to shuffle and toss 

 about continents as a man would a pack of cards ; and who 

 pride themselves on the happy allusions to the existing 

 tropical Fauna and Flora as "the monuments of the departed 

 continents, Atlantis and Limuria." But it is time enough 

 to speak of a monument when we are assured that death 

 has actually taken place, and it is time to inquire into the 

 fact of the death when we have made sure of the previous 

 objective existence. Now the soundings of the " Challenger" 

 in the various oceans through which it cruised have 

 thoroughly disproved any such existing objects as the 

 above, and have shown that the assumption of their exist- 

 ence is "but the baseless fabric of a vision"; while 

 Grisebach 's science and philosophy are thus seen to accord 

 with the latest discoveries of science. 



The attention of Grisebach was specially directed to the 

 territory of La Plata, of the botany of which little was 

 known till it was explored by Lorentz and Hieronymus. 

 In acknowledgement of the services rendered by Dr Lorentz, 

 Grisebach's first work on the botany of this territory was 



