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geology, mineralogy, meteorology, magnetism, zoology, and botany 

 — and quoting as an example the " Historia fisika e politica de 

 Chili " of the Chilian Government. It was proposed that the Home 

 and Colonial Governments should share the expenses, the former 

 finding collectors, observers, and collections, &c. and the latter under- 

 taking the plates, letter-press, publication and authorship. Sir W. 

 Denison's suggestion was referred by the Secretary for the Colonies 

 to the Royal Society, the Directors of the Geological Survey and of the 

 Royal Gardens, and to the Superintendent of the Natural History Col- 

 lections of the British Museum, to be reported upon by them. The 

 Botanical Beport is the only one with which this paper is concerned ; 

 it fully admitted the excellence and utility of the general plan, but fore- 

 saw many insuperable obstacles to the achievement of the botanical 

 portion, on the proposed scale of a quarto or folio work, illustrated with 

 beautiful coloured plates, to which alone the Australian Colonies 

 would be disposed to contribute : these were, that the expense would 

 be enormous, Australia alone containing about 8000 species of plants ; 

 the time required would not fall short of half a century ; the earlier 

 volumes would be antiquated before the middle and later appeared ; 

 there was no prospect of securing the services of a succession of 

 scientific botanists and artists who would co-operate in producing a 

 work, of which the scientific results would be small compared with 

 the labour and anxiety of superintendence ; no publisher would under- 

 take the series, except the Government were at the whole cost of pro- 

 ducing it ; the price and bulk would place it beyond the reach of any 

 but a few wealthy individuals and public libraries : and, what appears 

 a stronger objection than all these, is that the inexpensive, portable, 

 practical Floras, which should be precursors to such magnificent 

 works, would be indefinitely postponed. The Director of Kew Gardens, 

 therefore, concluded by again urging on the Home Government the 

 prosecution of the Colonial Floras, which would meet the principal ob- 

 ject Sir William Denison had in view, as far as botany was concerned, 

 proposing that it be left to the wealthy colonies themselves to provide 

 the " ouvrages de luxe," whose extent, scope, and practicability could 

 not even be estimated in the present rude condition of Colonial 

 Botany. The expediency of this middle course was at once recog- 

 nized by his Grace the Duke of Newcastle, who immediately gave in- 

 structions that a definite plan should be submitted to him, embracing 

 Floras of all the Colonies, stating what had been done towards each, 

 and what remained to be done, together with the probable expendi- 

 ture of time and money, which their preparation would occupy. 



The reply embodied much curious information regarding the state 

 of Colonial Botany, and many suggestions as to the best means of 

 securing to the public the uniformity, cheapness, and completeness of 

 the Floras. These were considered under the three heads of collec- 

 tion of materials, authorship and publication. "With regard to the 

 first, it was shown that ample materials existed for very good practical 

 Floras of the largest colonies, but that it would be necessary to send 



