164 THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST. 
mals, will in time, invade this area and complete the destruc- 
tion. 
The only hope of preserving our animals is to have large 
reserves of suitable country set aside, properly patrolled and 
kept free from predaceous animals. It is certainly our duty to 
keep our fauna intact to hand down to posterity. 
CHANGING PLANT NAMES. 
By E. CHeen, 
(Abstract of Lecture.) 
It not infrequently happens that in our Botanic Gardens, 
as well as in some of our seedsmen’s catalogues, the names of 
certain well-known plants are changed, without any explanation 
as to the reason for such changes. To see a familiar plant 
labelled with a new name in place of the one ordinarily ac- 
cepted, tends to make the study of botany more or less un- 
intelligible, and leads to confusion in scientific study, and also 
reflects adversely upon the reputations of those who are re- 
sponsible for such changes. In some instances the necessity for 
making changes in plant names are ubevon gh because of the 
re-subdivisions of many of the larger genera. When large divi- 
sions or groups are divided or subdivided vato new subdivisions 
or groups; and families are divided into sub-families, and genera 
into sub-genera, or even a Linnean species is split up into what 
is known in modern times as sub-species or micro-species, it is 
desirable in such instances to create new names, as in such cases 
it is quite possible that the ordinary student may not be able to 
grasp the reasons for such subdivisions, especially as the most 
distinguished botanists are perpetually at variance with each 
other, as to the subdivisions of the vegetable kingdom, and have 
not yet arrived at a satisfactory conclusion, as to what con- 
stitutes a family, genera, species or variety. It was stated many 
years ago by a distinguished horticulturist that “the science of 
the botanist at the best is very unstable, because it is entirely a 
science of. conjecture, liable at all times to be overset by the 
test of cultivation. . . . .” To emphasise this statement the 
same writer points out that “Rhododendrons and Azaleas belong 
to two classes, widely separated by the number of the anthers, 
yet they will breed freely: together.” When we realise that the 
genus Rhododendron is distinguished from Azalea, by having 5 
to 10 stamens, with anthers, having two terminal pores, Gvhereas 
