exii The Transactions of the South Africon Philosophical Society 
of everlastings (Helichrysum). But besides these identical species there 
are many nearly allied forms, ¢.g., eighteen other species of Helichrysum, 
and many typically South Africa genera, such as Pelargonium, Ozalis, 
Erica, Blaeria, Protea, Sparmannia, and Disa. 
Much more light will be thrown upon these relations by the further 
exploration of those mountains, as well as of the highlands of the 
Zambesi and Shiré rivers. 
It is with great pleasure that I refer on this occasion to a most 
interesting paper read before this society by Professor Guthrie in 1888 
on ‘The Subjective Causes of Evolution as illustrated by the Geo- 
graphical Distribution of Plants.’ One need not agree with the lecturer 
in the final conclusion, ‘that independent simultaneous variation must 
be admitted as a vera causa for the existence of widespread species,’ and 
yet admit the possibility of such a process. 
Comparatively little work has been done in vegetable biology, 
although our climate, with its rich flora and its extremes of temperature 
and dryness, abounds in highly interesting material. Professor Goebel 
has studied some of our Mesembryanthemums and Euphorbias. Pro- 
fessor Buchenau has published a monograph of the curious palmiet, 
Prionum palimta, and I have contributed several papers on the adapta- 
tion of South African plants to the climate. 
Some observations have been published on the fertilization of flowers. 
Mr. Scott Elliott collected and contributed to the ‘Annals of Botany’ 
what was known about the important 7é6/e which our birds have in this 
work. Mr. Evans quite recently described the adaptation of the flowers 
of several species of Loranthus, viz., L. Kraussianus and L. Dregei, to 
fertilization by sun-birds (Cinnyris olivaceus and C. Verreauxi), while I 
had the good fortune to discover the butterfly which fertilizes the queen 
of orchids, Disa uniflora. If we add to that a paper by Dr. Schonland 
on Cyphia volubilis, and the subject of my presidential address of last 
year, ‘On the Means of the Distribution of Seeds in the Flora of South 
Africa,’ our list is complete. It represents a very meagre result, although 
phytobiology, the study of the immediate relationship of plants to their 
environment, is the most living and interesting development of 
botanical study. 
It may be due to insufficient information on my part, but it appears 
to me that the progress in the knowledge of our fauna is, in proportion, 
less considerable than that of our flora. 
-Not that the number of the new species recently described is smaller. 
On the contrary, for the ‘Zoological Record’ mentions sixty-five new 
vertebrates, 209 molluscs, and 1,279 insects, besides the corresponding 
numbers of the smaller orders. But the describing of new species is 
