564 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION K. 
regards the Flowering Plants and Ferns. But who that knows anything about 
plants would imagine that the ascription to a genus or order, or the designation 
by a couple of Latin names with a brief specific description, exhausts what it 
is important to know about a species? In most cases it is after this has been 
done that the real importance of its study begins. Such possibilities as these 
do not appear to have been appreciated by those who advised or controlled 
these official changes. I have no desire to undervalue the agriculturist or the 
important work which he does. But he is engaged in the special application 
of various pure sciences, rather than in pure science itself. Advance in the 
prosperity of any country which has progressed beyond the initial stages of 
settlement follows on the advance of such knowledge as the devotee of Pure 
Science not only creates, but is also able to inculcate in his pupils. It is then 
imperative that, in any state which actively progresses, provision shall be made 
for the pursuit of pure as well as of applied science. In my view an essential 
mistake has been made in changing the character of the appointments in question 
from that of botanists to that of agriculturists. For the change marks the 
abandonment of Pure Science in favour of its specialised and local application. 
The head of such an institution should always be a representative of Pure 
Science, thoroughly versed in the nascent developments of his subject. He could 
then delegate to specialists the work of following out into detail such various 
lines of special application as Agriculture, Acclimatisation, Plant-Breeding, 
Forestry, or Economics. Or, if the organisation were a large one, as we may 
anticipate that it would become in the Capital of a great State, separate 
Institutes might develop to serve the several applied branches, while to a 
central Institute, in touch with them all, might be reserved the duty of advanc- 
ing the Pure Science from which all should draw assistance and inspiration. 
It matters little how this principle works out in detail, if only the principle 
itself be accepted, viz., that Pure Science is the fount from which the practical 
applications spring. Sydney, as the Capital of a great State, has already laid 
her course, as regards Botanical Science, in accordance with it. Her Botanic 
Garden and the recently developed Botanical Department in the University 
(which, I understand, may find its home ultimately in the Botanic Garden) will 
serve as centres of study of the Pure Science of Botany. This will readily 
find its application to Agriculture, to Forestry, to Economics, and in various 
other lines present and future. I am convinced that it is in the best interest 
of any State that can possibly afford to do so to encourage and liberally endow 
the central establishment where the Pure Science of Botany is pursued, and to 
continue that encouragement and endowment, even though results of immediate 
practical use do not appear to be flowing from it at any given moment. For in 
these matters it is impossible to forecast what will and what will not be 
eventually of practical use. And in any case as educational centres the purely 
botanical establishments will always retain their important function of supplying 
that exact instruction, without which none can pursue with full effect a calling 
in the applied branches. 
We may now turn from generalities to certain special points of interest in 
your peculiar Flora which happen to have engaged my personal attention. They 
centre round a few rare and isolated plants belonging to the Pteridophyta, a 
division of the Vegetable Kingdom which there is every reason to believe to 
have appeared relatively early in the history of Evolution. But though the type 
may be an ancient one, it does not follow that every representative of it preserves 
the pristine features intact. Throughout the ages members of these early 
families may themselves have progressed. And so among them to-day we may 
expect to find some which preserve the ancient characters more fully than others. 
The former have stood still, and may be found to compare with curious exacti- 
tude with fossils even of very early date. The latter have advanced, and though 
still belonging to the ancient family, are by their modifications become essentially 
modern representatives of it. For instance, the Fern Angiopteris has a sorus 
which very exactly matches sori from the Paleozoic period, and it may accord- 
ingly be held to be a very ancient type of Fern. On the other hand, the genera 
Asplenium, or Polypodium, include Ferns of a type which has not been recognised 
from early fossil-bearing rocks, and they may be held to be essentially modern. 
But still all of them clearly belong to the family of the Ferns. 
In the Australian Flora only three of the four divisions of the Pteridophyta 
