64 J. H. MAIDEN. 



Australian species should be examined. Phytolacca the 

 common " Poke- weed"; Pittosporum ; Billardiera; Psor- 

 alea; Tetragonia expansa, Murr., "New Zealand Spinach," 

 the shoots contain much saponin. Xylomelum pyriforme, 

 Knight, our "Native Pear," the leaf contains saponin. In 

 view also of the fact that Macadamia is strongly cyano- 

 genetic, it would appear that systematic chemical investi- 

 gation of our Proteaceae would promise useful results. 



The question of chemical investigation of our native 

 vegetation has more or less interested me for over twenty- 

 five years, and it is a great pleasure to see the strides that 

 have been made recently. The largely pioneering researches 

 of Mr. H. G. Smith, published by our Society, have been 

 excellent, and what we now want is a systematic phyto- 

 chemical survey, family by family, of Australian plants. 

 One result of this will be that unsuspected affinities will 

 be brought out to supplement those relations already 

 established as the result of morphological investigations. 

 With most of our local workers, research of this kind is but 

 an incident amongst more or less exacting daily duties of 

 another kind, but such valuable phy to-chemical work on 

 our native flora has already been carried out in every 

 Australian State and New Zealand, that it does not require 

 the prophetic vision, to see additional workers attracted to 

 this field, for they have an assurance that patient work 

 will inevitably reap a satisfactory reward. 



5. Wanted a Botanical Museum. — I have already hinted 

 that I think it may be fairly said that very few people 

 have more than a superficial idea of the activities of a 

 modern botanic garden. Many people, and educated ones 

 too, look upon my sub-department as having simply the 

 horticultural and disciplinary care of a garden (and some 

 parks), and think that the prefix "botanic" is simply given 

 as an explanation of the occurrence of labels on plants. 



J 



