PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 25 



The composition of these northern faunae appears to differ 

 somewhat from ours. There the Crustacea are the most 

 populous group, but here it is the mollusca. The sponges 

 form a larger proportion of the Australian than of the 

 Atlantic fauna. In the Irish Sea the Echinodermata are 

 but a fiftieth of the total, here they are an eighteenth. 

 But the Protozoa of the Irish Sea contribute one-seventh 

 of its invertebrate fauna while our list represents them 

 only as one-fifteenth. So it may be that the discrepancy 

 between north and south lies in the early recognition here 

 of the large conspicuous forms and the late (or rather 

 future) detection of the smaller and inconspicuous species; 

 that the southern fauna though absolutely richer, may be 

 levelled up to northern proportions as between group and 

 group, by discovery of the smaller forms; that, for instance 

 the Crustacea may regain their supremacy over the mol- 

 lusca by the recognition of numerous minute forms. So 

 when a future census of the Sydney marine invertebrates 

 attains symmetry by the due representation of small, 

 neglected species, the total will exceed still further those 

 of the northern fauna. 



About 550 species of fish are recorded from New South 

 Wales. A catalogue of this fauna was published by Mr. 

 E. R. Waite 1 in 1904. 



Of marine algse, about 160 species have been recognised 

 on the coast of this State. These were recently catalogued 

 by Mr. A. H. S. Lucas, 2 who remarks that the local marine 

 flora is poor and monotonous compared to that of colder 

 seas. The great kelp forests of the south which may reach 

 the surface from a depth of fifty feet are here wanting. 

 As with the fauna, our shores are a meeting ground for 



1 Waite, Mem. N. S. Wales Naturalist Club, ii, 1904. 



2 Lucas, Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S. Wales, xxxiv, 1909, pp. 9-60; xxxvii, 

 1912, pp. 157 - 171; xxxviii, 1913, pp. 49 - 60. 



