38 Barnard, Notes of a Visit to W.A. [voT'x"xxvi 



wealthy folks. His name has been used as a specific name for 

 some hundreds of Western Australian plants. Another man 

 who spread the fame of New Holland plants was John Lindley, 

 who was Professor of Botany in the University of London in 

 1829. In 1839 he published in Edwards's " Botanical Register," 

 vol. xxxii., " A Sketch of the Vegetation of the Swan River 

 Colony." This contains coloured figures of eighteen species. 

 A copy can be seen in our Melbourne Public Library, and the 

 faithfulness of the figures remarked. Our own grand old man, 

 the late Baron von Mueller, did a great deal towards the elucida- 

 tion of the Western Australian flora, and, I believe, showed 

 considerable partiality towards it, which perhaps may be ac- 

 counted for by the fact that- in 1856 he accompanied, as botanist, 

 the A. C. Gregory Exploring Expedition in North-Western 

 and Northern Australia, and in 1867 and 1877 made visits to 

 Western Australia for purposes of botanical research. In this 

 connection it may be mentioned that a society for the study 

 of the native flora — the Mueller Botanic Society — was founded 

 in Perth in 1897, which published eleven parts of its pro- 

 ceedings, dated September, 1899-April, 1903. In April, 1903, 

 it became the Western Australian Natural History Society, 

 publishing proceedings at irregular intervals. On 17th 

 August, 1909, the title of the society was altered to Natural 

 History and Science Society of Western Australia, and it 

 commenced the publication of a quarterly journal. In 1914 

 the society became the Royal Society of Western Australia. 

 Unfortunately, the set of the society's proceedings in our 

 library is far from complete, but it contains many useful 

 articles. Probably in the early days of the society, a piece of 

 land lying between Leederville and Subiaco, two of the western 

 suburbs of Perth, was dedicated as a public park, under the 

 name of Mueller Park ; but as one of the far-reaching effects of 

 the late war I found that this is now shown on the official plan 

 of Perth (October, 1917) as Kitchener Park, the name 

 " Mueller " having been discarded, probably on account of its 

 German flavour. 



These notes will hardly be complete without some reference 

 to the Western Australian Museum, which is housed in a fine 

 building a little to the north of the railway station and over- 

 looking Central Perth. It was opened on its present site in 

 1891, and contains a creditable lot of specimens. Western 

 Australian birds are well represented, but I was very much 

 struck, while glancing at them, with the prevalence of sombre 

 tints in their colourings, even the parrots making a poor show. 

 This, probably, is an indication of the type of country which 

 they inhabit. Among a number of interesting large cases was 

 one containing a group of the common sea and shore birds found 



