PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. xcv. 



dioecious shrubs, with small green female and catkin-like male 

 flowers. The fruit is a nut contained in a samaroid pod, much 

 larger than that of the elm. It is interesting to note that the 

 two genera have not yet been found nearer together than 

 2,000 miles, the genus Juliania being confined to Mexico and 

 Orthopterygium to Peru. A new species of Eucalyptus from E. 

 Australia, which attains a height of 60 feet, possesses a remark- 

 ably hard wood resembling lignum vitae, which will be valuable 

 for many purposes. Another plant, a common English St. 

 John's wort (Hypericum perforatuni), was sown in an Australian 

 garden 25 years ago, and has now become a most noxious weed 

 over, it is estimated, 10,000 acres of good land, large sums being 

 spent in attempts to extirpate it. Only two flowering plants 

 have as yet been found in the Antarctic, against 400 from the 

 Arctic regions, though lichens and mosses are numerous. What 

 threatens to be a serious enemy to the gooseberry has lately 

 appeared in England in the form of the American gooseberry 

 mildew (Sphcerotheca mors-uva). It is most destructive in 

 America, and appeared first in Ireland in 1900, where it has 

 done great damage. The sugar-cane leaf-hopper, which has 

 caused great loss in Hawaii, seems to be decreasing under the 

 attacks of an egg-parasite which has been introduced, but, 

 unfortunately, this method cannot be applied to a mildew. Two 

 exhibitions which have been recently held may be alluded to. 

 At one, that of the Royal Agricultural Society, many matters 

 important to farming were discussed, including the vitality of 

 farm seeds. In certain experiments it had been found that 

 wheat and barley ceased to have any vitality after ten years, 

 whilst black and white oats retained 76 and 57 per cent, of living 

 seeds in the eleventh year. This seems to be directly opposed 

 to the stories of the germination of mummy wheat, which, if 

 true, may be accounted for by the dryness of the Egyptian 

 climate. The other was the Exhibition of Indiarubber, held in 

 Ceylon, and of great importance in view of the demand for and 

 cultivation of rubber. The most interesting new development 

 seems to have been processes for vulcanising, colouring, and 



