and plants are without labels; those that there are, are mostly 

 old, defaced, and illegible. A larger and better conservatory 

 is much required; and an economic museum, such as is now- 

 connected with most other establishments of the kind, could 

 not fail to be of public utility in this colony also. These 

 improvements cannot j^erhaps be expected until the public 

 mind is more alive than it now seems to be to the importance 

 of more widely diffusing natural knowledge, a direction in 

 which the influence of this Society ought to weigh. I observe 

 that our Museum had over 10,000 visitors in six months, of 

 whom rather more than half were Sunday visitors. Better 

 labels and fuller descriptive particulars are here also much 

 required ; and I may remark that I find we are much in 

 arrears with binding, without which it is difficult to consult 

 our scientific serials. 



Memhers and Papers. — Our numbers, I am glad to observe, 

 keep up, and have slightly increased. There are, I am con- 

 fident, many gentlemen not yet enrolled whose adhesion would 

 strengthen the Society, which needs to, as I conceive, rest 

 upon a comprehensive basis, and to embrace a wide range of 

 literary as well as scientific interests, if it is to outlive the 

 first harvest of Tasmanian discovery. When I turn to what, 

 after all, is the test of the vitality of any scientific society, 

 the number of original contributions from its members, I find 

 that we have received 60 since my predecessor addressed you. 

 It would be improper, and it is needless, for me to allude, 

 except for a passing exjn'ession of gratitude, to those two 

 Fellows to whose indefatigable industry we are indebted for a 

 very large number of them. They may be classified as fol- 

 lows. I think the list is interesting as indicating the present 

 direction of scientific activity here : — Botanical subjects, IB ; 

 subjects of geology, 10 ; land and sea shells, 16 ; our domestic 

 pest, the codlin moth (Carjjocapsa po7nonellaJ, 4:: other sub- 

 jects of Natural History, 11; miscellaneous, 6; total, 60. 

 Remembering that we have no endowed chairs of Natural 

 History or Philosophy, and but a limited number of workers, 

 the Society is to be congratulated on such substantial results ; 

 and when we remember what considerable additions have been 

 made to the lists of sjDecies, more particularly of land and 

 marine shells, and what extensive tracts in the west are either 

 imperfectly examined, or not yet examined at all, we may 

 reasonably hope that the harvest is far from being exhausted. 

 Certainly, as regards Geology, it cannot be so; not only is 

 the exact place in geological sequence of some of our forma- 

 tions still undetermined, but there are some thousands of 

 square miles which have not been, and cannot be, interrogated, 

 so long as they are hidden by a dense forest growth. And it 

 seems as if this broken fragment of the great Australian 



