358 



SCIENCE 



[N. S., Vol. XL., No. 1028 



should not have fallen to one who could 

 with unusual weight and knowledge have 

 addressed them from the floristic and geo- 

 gi-aphical point of view. I mean, to Pro- 

 fessor Bayley Balfour, of Edinburgh, who 

 was actually invited by the council to pre- 

 side. He could have handled the subject 

 of your rich and peculiar flora with de- 

 tailed knowledge; and, with the true 

 Hookerian touch, he would have pictured 

 to you in bold outlines its relation to pres- 

 ent problems. Failing such equipment, I 

 may at least claim to have made some of 

 your rare and peculiar forms the subject of 

 special study at intervals spread over thirty 

 years: for it was in 1884 that I was sup- 

 plied with living plants of Phylloglossum 

 by Baron Ferdinand von Miiller, while a 

 paper to be published this year contains 

 details of a number of ferns kindly sent to 

 me by various collectors from New Zealand. 

 I have been personally interested more 

 especially in your rare Pteridophytes, iso- 

 lated survivals as they surely are of very 

 ancient vegetation. I propose to indicate 

 later in this address some points of interest 

 which they present. But first I shall offer 

 some more general remarks on the history 

 of the investigation of the Australian flora, 

 as a reminder of the recent death of Sir 

 Joseph Hooker, whose work helped so 

 greatly to promote a philosophical knowl- 

 edge of the flora of this quarter of the 

 globe. 



Few, if any, of the large areas of the 

 earth's surface have developed their coat 

 of vegetation under such interesting condi- 

 tions as that which bears the Australasian 

 flora. In its comparative isolation, and in 

 its freedom from the disturbing influence 

 of man, it may be held as unique. We may 

 picture to ourselves the fleld as having 

 been open to evolutionary tendencies, un- 

 usually free from the incursion of competi- 

 tive foreign types, and with its flora shaped 



and determined through long ages in the 

 main by climatic influences. Naturally 

 the controlling effect of animal life had 

 been present throughout, as well as that 

 of parasitic and fungal attack; but that 

 potent artiflcial influence, the hand of man, 

 was less effective here than in almost any 

 other area. The aborigines were not tillers 

 of the soil: in their digging for roots and 

 such-like actions they might rank with the 

 herbivorous animals, so far as they affected 

 the vegetation. Probably the most power- 

 ful influence they exercised was through 

 flre. And so the conditions remained, the 

 native flora being practically untouched, 

 till the visit of Captain Cook in 1770 : for 

 little account need be taken of the handful 

 of specimens collected by Dampier in the 

 seventeenth century. 



Captain Cook shipped with him in the 

 Endeavour a very remarkable man, viz., 

 Joseph Banks, whom Dr. Maiden has de- 

 scribed as "the Father of Australia." He 

 not only acted as the scientifle director of 

 the expedition, but he was also its financier. 

 Educated at Eton and Oxford, he found 

 himself as a young man possessed of an 

 ample fortune. Though devoted to field 

 sports, he did not, like so many others, 

 spend his life upon them. Following the 

 dictates of a taste early awakened in him, 

 he turned his attention to travel for scien- 

 tific ends. His opportunity came when 

 Cook was fitting out the Endeavour for his 

 first voyage to the southern seas. Banks 

 asked leave of the Admiralty to join the 

 expedition, which was granted, and he fur- 

 nished all the scientific stores and a staff 

 of nine persons at his own expense. 



The story of that great expedition of 

 1768 to 1771 is given in "Cook's Voy- 

 ages," compiled by Dr. Hawkesworth, a 

 book that may be found in every library. 

 Though it is evident throughout that Banks 

 took a leading part in the observational 



