xviii President's Address 



published the tenth volume of the well-known Fragmenta 

 PhytographicB J.^f/S^raZ^6f,aswellasthefirst volumeof his work 

 on the plants of New Guinea, to which I referred in my last 

 address. The learned baron in this work demonstrates the 

 close affinity existing between the plants of this large island 

 and those of North Australia. A further supplement has 

 lately been added to the work on Useful Plants Suitable 

 for Cultivation in this Colony ^ and another publication 

 which promises to be of great interest and utihty has been 

 commenced. This is a description, with illustrations, of the 

 eucalyptus trees, the first eleven plates of which have already 

 been issued. The publication of an illustrated book con- 

 taining a full description of all the plants hitherto found in 

 Victoria has lately been authorised, and it is now in the 

 press. And last, though not least, I would mention a work 

 on the organic constituents of plants, translated from the 

 German of Professor Wittstein, and published here privately 

 by Baron von Mueller, with many new notes and observa- 

 tions. This book is eminently calculated to assist in the 

 local analysis of our native vegetation, and will, no doubt, 

 prove of great utility in this respect. 



Another work, by Mr. Guilfoyle, the curator of the 

 Domain and Botanical Gardens, entitled Australian Botany, 

 must not be overlooked, more especially as it is likely to 

 supply a great want felt by young students of this science 

 in the colony. 



The National Museum still continues to advance its 

 collections illustrative of the different branches of natural 

 science towards systematic completion, and in several 

 departments it is now no easy matter to obtain the rarities 

 which alone are required to fill up the gaps in the general 

 series of the living and fossil forms of the a,nimal kingdom, 

 as well as in the sections of geology and mineralogy ; 42,292 

 species of the higher classes are catalogued as named in the 

 cases, besides many thousands of the lower classes named, 



