May, J 'WiLLiAMSOiss, Census of Victorian Plants. 11 



NOTES ON THE CENSUS OF VICTORL\N PLANTS. 



By H. B. Williamson. 



(Read before the Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria, 14th April, 191 9 ) 



The " Key to the System of Victorian Plants," issued by Baron 

 von Mueller in 1888, contained short descriptions of 1,890 

 species of plants, including 86 ferns and lycopods, which had 

 been recorded as having been found in various parts of Victoria. 

 This list, with supplementary lists published in the Victorian 

 Naturalist, was regarded as our census until 1908, when, on 

 the Plant Names Committee being appointed to consider the 

 question of providing vernacular names for our plants, a 

 " Recording Census " was prepared, under the direction of 

 Professor Ewart, D.Sc, Government Botanist, and chairman 

 -of the committee, for the purpose of facilitating the work. 

 Prof. Ewart had already, in the Naturalist for January, 1908 

 (xxiv., p. 144), thrown some doubt on certain Victorian plant 

 records ; consequently there were some differences in the two 

 lists, to which he referred in the Naturalist of April, 1909 

 (xxv., p. 200). 



The " Recording Census," which provided space for inserting 

 various particulars regarding each species, was placed in the 

 hands of all who might be expected to help in the aim referred 

 to. Since then this list has undergone some slight alterations ; 

 deletions and additions have been made, as well as some changes 

 in nomenclature, in order to accord more with the rules adopted 

 at a convention of the world's botanists, and to correct errors 

 that had been made in departing from the nomenclature in 

 Bentham's " Flora Australiensis," so that the Census now 

 contains 2,090 species, and, as 30 species given in the " Key " 

 have been dropped, it follows that the number of species added 

 since 1888 amounts to 230. 



All but about a dozen have been added on the strength of 

 plants gathered within the State, the actual specimens being 

 now in the National Herbarium. These 12, together with 

 about 188 species named in the " Key," form the subject of 

 this paper, which, perhaps, ought to have been entitled " The 

 Rare Plants of Victoria." 



Now and again apparent errors have come under the notice 

 of the Plant Names Committee during its considerations, and 

 some of us have begun to doubt whether all the species named 

 in the Census have really been gathered in our State, especially 

 in view of opinions the compiler of the " Key " had expressed 

 regarding certain plants growing near the boundaries. The 

 inflation, if any, of our Census is certainly due almost entirely 

 to von Mueller — or " the Baron," as we fondly remember him^ 

 and he may have made mistakes. If we investigate these 



