The Future.

"Amongst the projects for the future it is intended to offer prizes to the pupils of the State Schools in the various parts of the Colony for the best collections of specimens of the natural productions of their locality, with papers relating to them; the papers and specimens to be sent in in time for the Annual Meeting and Conversazione next year. When we remember the great good which followed from my old friend, the late Rev. Professor Henslow, encouraging by prizes the formation of collections of Plants and Insects, and papers on their places of occurrence, &c., by the school children of his parish; and recall the delightful evidence which he has given of the growth of intelligent habits of observation and orderly records of facts in plain, clear, truthful language, by these young people of both sexes in Suffolk—the children often adding great varieties, and sometimes entirely new additions to the previous scientific records of the country, in which they often anticipated the Professor (to his great delight) in recognising—and remembering his evidence on the influence for good of such occupations on the character and habits in after-life as those children page 107 grew up, I think the Club is not only deserving of commendation for setting such an object before it, but that probably the Government, through the Education Department, might be inclined to lend a helping hand to the good work.

"I may now make a few suggestions for the next year's work. In the first place, so little is known and so much is ready to hand which, if carefully and accurately observed and recorded, would be a real addition to human knowledge, that every member of the Club may be assured that he can do really good work without any great sacrifice of time or money. Field observations are the main things wanted of members of the Club, and as I know that many a good observer is stopped on the threshold by not knowing the name of the object he desires to write about, and as a large proportion of the natural objects about us actually have no names, or are at present undescribed, I will mention an excellent plan to overcome this difficulty. In all cases, if you can get a specimen of the object, preserve it and designate it in your journal or note-book by a number; having distinguished it in this way, all your observations can go on unchecked. If you send such a numbered specimen to be preserved in the Museum of the Club, all the future observations on A, B, No. 1, or No. 50, &c., can be referred safely to the right species when that is determined, and each further observation on the given species might refer always to it under the same number, an index being made as you go on to show at what pages of your journal entries concerning No. so-and-so are to be found. In this way the observer need not stop to determine the species at first, and many a good observation may be saved that might otherwise be lost.

"The habits of few of our native quadrupeds are as yet well recorded, and anything added is worth having. The Birds are much better known than those of most countries, but of several species the nests and eggs are not well described. Of Reptiles, the Snakes are pretty well known, but the Lizards and their habits have been little observed. Of Frogs, the exact sounds uttered by the different kinds are scarcely recognised, although with a lantern in country gardens on Summer nights the determination of which sound belongs to which frog is easy. The metamorphoses and early habits of the immature young of the Sand-frogs and the Tree-frogs are scarcely known. Of all fishes, the time and seasons of coming, and going, and of spawning, have yet to be recorded in successive years by many observers. Of Mollusca, the males of our so-called Paper-Nautilus have not yet been found, and the habits of most of the other Cuttle-fishes would form an interesting record. The tongues, with their patterns of teeth, have yet to be figured for most of our univalve shells. And the general distribution of the bivalves, and especially the soft Ascidian Molluscoids, have yet to be recorded. The soft compound Ascidians, which abound on our shores after storms, or which are easily dredged, have often the most strikingly beautiful colors when fresh, which disappear shortly after death; and the record of these, either by description, or, better still, by the aid of a box of moist colors, would be good work for a Field Naturalists' Club, and which none other can so well be expected to do. Very few of the Worms, page 108 either of land or sea, are yet known of their proper living colors, and these, with their habits and distribution, are to be noted. Of Insects, the multitude unknown is almost unlimited. The late Dr. Howitt here, and his friend, Mr. Bakewell in London, working together, have done wonders with the Coleoptera or Beetles: and his collections bequeathed to the University are now under my care, and available to the members of the Club for reference; but the other orders have been little worked, and I have many hundreds of new species of Neuroptera, Diptera, Lepidoptera, Hymenoptera, and the lower types, as well as of the Arachnida, or spiders, from the neighbourhood of Melbourne. The chief good work for the members of our Field-Club in connection with these is the observation and record of habits, the breeding and noting the larvæ with their food, habits and cocoons of the Lepidoptera, and the habits and colored drawings from life of the Spiders, with their webs, trap-doors, and other food-catching or dwelling structures. The attempt to describe the new species without the means of referring to the great European Collections, and the extensive literature of every group in all the languages of Europe, is only likely to burden the subject with useless synonyms. The Zoophytes, or Corals, and Hydroida, as well as the Echinodermata, or Sea-Urchins, and Star-fish, are pretty well-known from dried specimens, but their colors when alive, and particularly of the Sea-Anemones, are only partially known. From time to time the Decades of the Zoology of Victoria, which I am publishing for the Government, will give some help in identifying many objects on which further field observations may well be made; and the Southern Science Record, published by some members of the Club, affords a vehicle for publication which will give zest to the coming year's labors.

"And now, with many hearty good wishes for the success of the Club, I must again thank you for your kindness in enabling me to address you a second time as President."

The audience, having enjoyed a pleasant evening's entertainment, gradually dispersed, and the second Annual Conversazione of the Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria terminated shortly after 10 o'clock.