PESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 13 
distinctions which go to differentiate the several species in 
the larger Australian genera. 
It might perhaps be accepted that real insight into the 
constructive unity of the plant would be more satisfactorily 
obtained from the consideration of results derived from 
separate lines of investigation, and no objection can now 
be taken to the conclusions arrived at from specialised 
effort in any direction, so long as it assists the object in 
view. Botanical science already relies upon the efforts of 
workers in many sections, such as those of morphology, 
anatomy, cytology, physiology, and ecology, all these being | 
in co-operation with the systematic side. But it is now 
shown that some of these sections are particularly depend- 
ent upon the results of chemical reactions, the principal 
efiect of which may be observed in well defined botanical 
changes, these eventually becoming quite distinctive in 
character, and as such are now recognised. 
The time absorbing and exacting nature of extensive 
chemical investigations in directions sufficiently compre- 
hensive to enable generalisations to be undertaken, is, 
perhaps, one reason why some biologists have, in the past, 
not always been prepared to take advantage of such evid- 
ence as is to be derived from extended chemical studies 
carried out in parallel directions with their own, and on 
the same or similar material. If the results of the chemical 
work with the principal Australian genera have been help- 
ful to my botanical colleague, certainly his investigations 
on the same material have greatly assisted my conclusions. 
This co-operation necessarily broadened the outlook in both 
directions and offered considerable advantages to thought 
and suggestion, while enabling a deeper insight to be 
obtained into some of the problems underlying the evolu- 
tionary formation of these genera and of their peculiarities 
of distribution. 
