The field of science is unbounded, and it is fruitful everywhere. Still, at no distant period, we shall be envied for having lived in the era of Australian discoveries, for having enjoyed the opportunity of applying the sum of knowledge accumulated by lengthened experiments, and by the toilsome studies of the past, at once to our immediate advantage; and to have brought, first of all, to bear, that sum of knowledge in a country which, although the oldest in the scale of the Creation, remained the latest ill the development of human faculties and enterprise. The veil of morning dew, which involved Australia since the creation day, has been dispersed as yet but partially by the rays of the dawning civilisation. But its beams shall have burst forth soon every-where in brilliant light.

Where is a country to be found in which such novelty of nature, inexhaustible resources, ample space for occupation, and a salubrious clime are equally inviting industry to settled happy homes, activity to successful enterprises, and philosophy to the most promising research?

A universal system of the types of vegetable and animal life should—as the result of our inquiries—initiate with ease the student into nature's wonderful areana. Ascending from its lowest forms, which only the microscope reveals, through divisions of higher development of organic life, there is no branch devoid of novelty, and more than one not even drawn as yet within the circle of elucidation.

Royal Society of Victoria