186^ Royal Society of Victoria. 



year to get the Eastern part of Gippsland phytologically 

 further explored. 



The second plant, the Pluehea Conocephala, which I have 

 the honour of submitting, was collected as far back as 1 848 

 by myself, on the Murray River. The species is not orna- 

 mental, but highly interesting. The plant for a long time 

 was only imperfectly known, and thus my original view of 

 its affinity remained adopted; but while some additional 

 material was coming in, I was in a better position to 

 investigate it, and found it belonged to the almost tropical 

 Pluehea, not yet on record as represented in Victoria. That 

 genus was named in memory of an amateur naturalist, the 

 Abbe Pluche, who lived about the middle of the last century. 



I would remark, that the printing of the key to Victorian 

 Plants has actually commenced. I am aware that I have 

 tried rather sorely, the patience of those particularly 

 interested in this work ; but the fact is this, the method 

 which the Hon. Dr. Dobson more especially desired to be 

 adopted is a very difficult one, requiring great care, much 

 time, and circumspect toil in working out. It is in accord 

 with the system, brought out first by the celebrated Lamarck, 

 at the end of the last century. The method is so difficult, 

 that unless very great caution is exercised, it is liable to 

 mislead, or to render the search for the names of plants even 

 bewildering ; therefore its practical application has very 

 seldom been attempted, and more particularly not over a 

 large area. The wider the area, the more difficult is the 

 task. The Rev. Mr. Spicer has with very praiseworthy zeal 

 undertaken such a dichotomous enumeration of the plants 

 of Tasmania, which comprises only about half the number 

 of our plants ; but although he did not work on a very 

 elaborate or strictly systematic plan, he experienced great 

 difficulties. Thus I found that I had to devote far more 

 research than I originally proposed to the work desired ; but 

 now it seems that I am gradually and successfully emerging 

 from what I at times thought would be a hopeless task. The 

 system to be adopted is a kind of dualism. It has to be 

 applied to 1900 difierent species of plants in Victoria, nearly 

 double as many as the plants of Great Britain and Ireland ; 

 and they have besides to be put into several hundred genera 

 and natural orders. Indeed, it proved a very complicated 

 effi^rt. 



The President said that the preparation of the dichotomous 

 key must have been a serious matter. It had been heard of 



