PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 67 



The arrangement should be strictly botanical. In each 

 Family should be found samples of seed, fruit, leaves, bark, 

 wood, gum, crude fibre, and anything in any way illustrative 

 or characteristic of the Family. There must be no over- 

 lapping other institutions which display vegetable products. 



Coloured pictures of interesting garden and hothouse 

 flowers, especially orchids, should be made a specialty of. 



The present Botanic Museum in the Botanic Gardens is 

 far too crowded, and because of this, many thousands of 

 specimens for which there is no room are systematically 

 stored as " supplements," until such time as the new 

 museum is ready to receive them. Every curator of a 

 museum knows that some objects present themselves but 

 once, or very seldom, in a lifetime ; the careful steward 

 of the public collections will accumulate specimens as 

 opportunities offer, and wait, more or less patiently, for a 

 suitable opportunity of displaying them. 



It would be a great pleasure to me to properly show my 

 contemporaries all the specimens I have stored away, and 

 if members think an adequate botanical museum should be 

 part of the educational equipment of Sydney, I ask them 

 to assist in educating public opinion with the view to bring 

 it about. 



6. A Fresh-ivater Aquarium. — In my 1897 Presidential 

 Address, p. 14, I drew attention to the desirability of a 

 Marine Biological Laboratory and Public Aquarium, and 

 suggested a site in a conveniently accessible position, say 

 in the Domain, for it. Some money towards the cost of a 

 Biological Laboratory still remains interest-bearing in the 

 bank in the names of trustees. No doubt posterity will 

 get its aquarium, but those of us who have seen public 

 aquaria in Europe would like to give New South Wales 

 people an opportunity of seeing them now. The Council of 

 the Zoological Garden has its eye directed to the matter, 



