PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 3 



The opportunity thus presented to a President comes 

 but once a year, and his notes, comments and reflections 

 have many limitations and may not always be sapient, but 

 they always receive the courteous and generous attention 

 of the members of the Society at whose head he is tem- 

 porarily placed. The greatest reward the President can 

 experience is attained if his attempt to take the broad 

 outlook, results in some of his visions implanting ideas in 

 the minds of his hearers, so that the ultimate result may 

 be, even in the humblest degree, that something may ensue 

 to the advancement of science. 



II. Necrology. 



1. Sir Joseph D. Hooker, Honorary Member. — In my 

 address of 1897 1 deplored the death of the great Australian 

 botanist, Baron von Mueller, who had passed away during 

 my year of office, and now it becomes my duty to officially 

 bring under your notice the death of our greatest British 

 botanist, Sir J. D. Hooker, whom many acclaim as the 

 greatest living botanist for a generation. Appreciative 

 articles on Hooker and his work have freely appeared 

 already, and I refer you to them for details of the veteran. 



Sir Joseph Hooker was one of our Honorary Members 

 and a Clarke Medallist of this Society; so also is Sir William 

 Thiselton-Dyer, his distinguished son-in-law who succeeded 

 him at Kew. Other ties with Kew are through the erudite 

 Professor Daniel Oliver who is an Honorary Member, and 

 Mr. W. B. Hemsley, another Honorary Member, who has 

 published interesting articles on the botanist whose loss 

 we mourn, and under whom he served for so long. 



Our debt of gratitude to Hooker as Australians is two- 

 fold. Firstly, because of his descriptions of Australian 

 plants and elucidation of Australian botanical problems, 

 and secondly, because of the interest he took in the welfare 

 of Australian botanical institutions and of Australian 

 botanical workers. 



