for the year 1884. xiii 



as to say a few words on what appear to me interesting 

 facts in the year's advance in knowledge, and perhaps I 

 cannot do better than follow my old custom. You will 

 remember I referred in my former address to a valuable and 

 extensive work on the eucalypts of Australia, undertaken 

 by our State botanist and fellow-member, Baron von 

 Mueller, and you will be glad to hear that the tenth decade 

 of the Eucalyptography of Australia is now in the press, 

 and, with the exception of a few supplements, will complete 

 this most important botanical work. Baron von Mueller 

 has also been closely engaged in research concerning the 

 regional distribution of the 14,000 already known Australian 

 plants preliminary to further extension of his utilitarian 

 inquiries into their structural characteristics, as well as into 

 their industrial and therapeutic uses. He informs me that 

 through the liberality of the Government he is now able to 

 issue a monograpby of the Myoporinaa, an extensive and 

 important order of Australian shrubs, for which he has eighty 

 plates already prepared ; he proposes, also, shortly to prepare 

 a new edition of the Select Plants for Industrial Culture 

 and Naturalisation, and that at the instance of the Field 

 Naturalists' Club he hopes soon to issue a Dichotomous Key 

 for the naming of Victorian plants — a work which will 

 no doubt be hailed with pleasure by all botanical students 

 among us. While on the subject of botanical science I will 

 call your attention to the great loss it has very recently sus- 

 tained by the death of the illustrious George Bentham, who 

 had by his great work, Flora Australie7isis (in the produc- 

 tion of which our botanist. Baron von Mueller, lent most 

 valuable and substantial assistance), associated his name 

 more closely with Australia than any other part of the 

 world. 



NATUKAL HISTOET AND ZOOLOGY. 



Our Museum of Natural History, so ably managed by 

 Professor M'Coy, increases in scientific interest and popu- 

 larity every year, and has received numerous valuable 



A 



