THE VICTOniAN NATUliALIST. 



be hidden under ^'ynagni nominis umbra," (the shadow of a great 



name.) 



Wor would the most enthusiastic young Australian, proud alike of 

 the fertility and glorious sunshine of the land of his birih, dare 

 to speak of our camellias as fragrant with scent. Far be it from 

 me to attempt to detract from the well earned fame of Dr. Taylor, 

 but we want more and more to learn to take nothing as fact that we 

 can prove for ourselves, and to be very certain by prolonged and 

 careful examination of all the facts of every case. 



With mnch satisfaction we note that natural science is, at any 

 rate, beginning to be considered an essential parb of a liberal 

 education. I do not ask that tiie study of classics should be 

 relegated to an inferior position in our university curriculum. May 

 the day be long distant when our young men shall cease to rpnd the 

 teachings of the old philosophers, in the language in which those 

 teachings were written or spoken, when the sonorous calences of old 

 Homer and the rythmic lines of Virgil be forgotten. With alllieartiness 

 the members of our Club can congratulate the university on its 

 clasi'ical chair being filled by so able and enthusiastic a scholar as 

 Professor Tucker. Yet we note with much thankfulness that 

 arrangements ai'e to be made for a chair of biology, with demonstrator 

 of the same, and that Mr. Lucas at Trinity, and Mr. McAlpine 

 at Ormond, both honoured members of our Club, are teaching the 

 science of biology at the affiliated colleges. Each year as it comes 

 and goes, shows the grooving interest that is being taken in those 

 studies that engage the attention of our Club. So, too, in the 

 Tvorld of thought. Every year is the truth of the old line 

 being understood and acted on — " Scii-e tuum nihil est nisi 

 te scire hoc sciat alter" or as Dryden has it, " Science is not 

 science till revealed. 



If we needed a text this should be the one for to-night. It was 

 in the spirit of this line that I pleaded last year, when I had the 

 honour to address you, and asked that aids to scientific knowledge 

 should be wisely and well arranged for in this new colony of ours. 

 I ventured then, in a modest w^ay^ to indicate some of the wants 

 most felt by our seekers after knowledge. Some of these wants 

 bave or are being met. Some are still as keenly felt as ever. Oiu* 

 [National Museum still requires enlargeirient, and the needs 

 indicated a year ago have in no case been met. If we are to be 

 beggars, we must be importunate ones. 



The Zoological Gardens at the Royal Park, and the Aquarium 

 at the Exhibition Building, have had added to them during the year 

 many interesting forms, and their usefulness has thus been much 

 enhanced. 



The Dichotomous Key to the Plants of the Colony is not yet 

 published, but some of us have been privileged to see proof sheets of 



