THE ViCTOHlAX N ATU I! ALIST. 



Ladiks and Gentlemp:k, Mismbkrs of the Field Naturalists' 

 Club of Yictohia, 



By your kind suffrages the lot falls to me a second tirce to 

 speak from the presidential chair, aa honour undeserved, yet highly 

 appreciated. It is my good fortune also to-night, as at our last 

 artnual gathering, to congratulate you on the position in which, as 

 a Club, we find ourselves. Our members have increased to 200, of 

 whom 30 are ladies. 



The meetings of tlie year havf^ Iteen full of interest. Papers, 

 some of great excellence, liave been read, and the exhibits at our 

 monthly meetings have evinced the dihgence with whicli some of 

 our members, at any rate, have pursued their work of investigating 

 the wondrous and beautiful mysteries of the woi'ld of nature. 



Some of our cxliibitors have forAvarded tlieir collections to enrich 

 the exhibits at tlie Indian and Colonial Exhibition, now being lielcl 

 in South Kensington. In tiiis connection tlie names of Messrs. 

 French and Lucas deserve especial attention. 



In connection with our monthly exhibitions, it must be noted 

 that we held one of native wild flowers; previous wet weather 

 somewhat interfered with the di:iplay, neverthe]e^s, by the diligence 

 of earnest seekers, about 150 different species were shown. It is 

 intended that such should be this year repeated on a larger scale, 

 and in a more definite manner than tlie one already held. 



Theyear has been made notable by burliaving been favoured by the 

 visitof one of the luminaries of science, in the person oFDr. J.E.Taylor, 

 editor of " Science Gossip." By the delivery of a series of lectures 

 of a popular, if not profound, character. Dr. 'J'aylor was able to. place 

 some of the phenomena of natural science before a large number of 

 people, and he doubtless incited many to seek to understand what 

 perhap.s before they had never thought of — the structure of tiie 

 world on wliich they live, and liow in long ages past, that structure had 

 been slowly prepared to be the bright and pleasant home of man. 

 Some, too, doubtless taught to look with new eyes on common 

 plants and animals, as they learned some of the mystic wonders of 

 the life history of oav flora nm\ fauna. 



Dr. Taylor, too, contributed a series of gossipy semi-scientific 

 articles to the pages of our leading u?wspaper, and which we ore quite 

 sure were road with interesr. and profit both by learned and 

 unlearned, ami tended also to popularise natural science. A 

 Avarning, too, that even those who have attained and justly a right to 

 speak, yet need to continue close observation and be content with 

 something more than mere looking from the windows of a railway 

 train, for surely the strange statement that the You Yangs was the 

 centre of a great volcanic outburst, and that Buningyong with its 

 well-fonujd crater w.is no extinct volcano, are mistakes which cannot 



