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tlie assistance of all who are able to render it, whether members of the Insti- 

 tute or not, in the work of completing the collections which have been so 

 creditably begun ; and to explain as far as I am able in what directions the 

 first efforts should be made. Did this work only involve the gathering of 

 specimens, I should have felt more diffidence in taking vip the time of the 

 meeting with what I have to say. It is the collection of facts that is of the 

 most importance. An array of dried plants or stuffed animals, though brought 

 together with much labour, and arranged with elaborate care and the highest 

 skill, wovild of itself be of little more value than a peep-show, if nothing were 

 known of the plants and the animals, their homes and their ways, except what 

 could be gathered by the eye from the collection itself. In the observation of 

 the conditions and habits of the world of life around him, there is a great 

 field, and a very interesting one, open to the student of nature in Otago. 

 I sincerely hope that, under the auspices of this Institute, much will be 

 gathered in it, and that what is thus gathered will be made known through 

 our Transactious, to all who delight in such information. 



THE HERBARIUM. 



I shall confine myself, in this paper, to some remarks on the Botanical 

 Collection in the Museum. I give precedence to it because I believe there are 

 in Otago more students of botany than of any other branch of natural history, 

 and because the collection itself is a large and important one. At the same 

 time, this is the only department of the science as to which we have any means 

 of information on matters connected with our own province, beyond the walls 

 of the Museum itself. A good deal of information about the natural history 

 of Otago, lies scattered over the world of books ; but it is altogether inac- 

 cessible to those who are here on the spot. The botany of the province is an 

 exception to this rule. Besides the information contained in Dr. Hooker's 

 Handhooh of the New Zealand Floi'a, there is a very useful paper on the 

 Botany of Otago, by Mr. Buchanan, to be found among the other Exhibition 

 Essays, in the volume of Transactions of the New Zealand Institute for the 

 year 1868. Some important notes on the same subject have also been published 

 in a separate form, by Dr. Lauder Lindsay, for, though the latter work is 

 entitled Contributions to New Zealand Botany, its real subject is the Flora of 

 Otago only. 



I should say at the outset, that there are many bulky plants mentioned in 

 these lists, as required for the Museum, which cannot be properly represented 

 by specimens, such as a herbarium is usually composed of. It would be very 

 well if drawings of most of these could be got ; and, at any rate, the flowering 

 heads and fruits should be obtained. A series of specimens of the seeds and 

 fruits of most of our plants is wanted. These specimens of plants in the 

 Museum were gathered and j)repared by Mr. Buchanan, I need hardly say, 



