BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 247 



tera, ^Becaspora, -fPiederota, ^Drapetes, * Herpolirion, ^Jstelia^ and 



*^nd: 



rema. 



Seeds of native plants were collected, whenever obtainable, and have 

 been distributed (in more than 1000 lots) with a view of increasing by 

 interchange the supply for our own establishment to the best advantage. 

 It is my pleasing duty to acknowledge here the valuable contributions 

 for our gardens, received in return for my former collections, amongst 

 which contributions those of Sir William Hooker, from the Eoyal Gar- 

 dens at Kew, are prominent. 



Engagements in the botanical perlustration of tropical Australia, for 

 which His Excellency has been pleased to sanction my absence for the 

 next and the current year, render it impossible to devote any time for 

 the most desirable researches into the utility of so many of our native 

 plants 5 but I have succeeded in finishing my systematic labours on the 

 Flora of Victoria, so far as the material for it was accumulated, and an 

 outline of the more interesting new plants has been furnished for the 

 Journals of the Philosophical Society and the Victorian Institute. A 

 more extensive information on our native plants was forwarded to Sir 

 William Hooker, and I trust that, on account of the great alliance of 

 the Victorian and Tasmanian plants, these manuscripts will prove to 

 be useful in the elaboration of the Elora of Van Diemen's Land, which 

 is now to be published, under the auspices of tlie Imperial Government, 

 by Dr. J. D. Hooker. 



A splendid collection of Algae, procured on our shores by Professor 

 Harvey, forms a valuable addition to our herbarium. The whole of 

 the collections may at all times be consulted in the Botanic Garden ; 

 and I hope sincerely that the labour which I have bestowed on these 

 collections will not be in undue proportion to the information which 



they are intended to convey. 



A regular transmission of botanical specimens to Kew has also been 

 continued. Steps have likewise been taken to procure from other coun- 

 tries such plants as promise to become of use to the colony ; and it is 

 gratifying to know that Nature has favoured us with a soil and with a 

 climate in which all treasures of the vegetation dispersed through ex- 

 tratropical countries may be reared in perfection and abundance. 



Those thus marked had previously been detected in Tasmarna. 

 t These Jo not belong to the genera to which they arc referred. 



