824 PRESIDENT S ADDRESS. 



His reputation was a world-wide one, and there are few countries 

 in which he lias not at some time or other found correspondents. 



Baron F. von Mueller arrived in Adelaide in 1847 and imme- 

 diately set himself to prosecute his favourite study of botany. 

 In 1852 he was appointed Government Botanist of Victoria, and 

 was thus enabled to commence his investigations on the flora of a 

 part of Australia which was untouched by Robert Brown. At 

 that time he commenced a series of most arduous journeys to the 

 Australian Alps and elsewhere, often unattended; and what that 

 meant in those days can be imagined only by those older residents 

 of this country now living who have had experience of the 

 inhospitable character of the Australian bush and the dangers 

 connected with it. In 1855, one of the most important journeys 

 was made; he then accompanied Mr. Gregory to the north and 

 north-west of Australia, and the expedition undoubtedly until the 

 time of the recent Horn Expedition stood out above all others for 

 its valuable scientific results; and in general interest and import- 

 ance of discovery it was second only to Leichhardt's. 



In the eai'lier part of his career Baron F. von Mueller was much 

 in the field and had opportunities of studying the forms and 

 habits of living plants which later in life he missed. 



Included in the vast collections which enabled Bentham to 

 carry out that unique work, the " Flora Australiensis," the only 

 complete continental Flora written, were more than fifty " large 

 cases " of specimens collected or forwarded by the Baron to Kew; 

 and to his assistance was the success of the work largely due. 

 There are now more than double the species of vascular j)lants 

 described compared with those known to Robert Brown. Mr. 

 Bentham in his eulogy on Robert Brown (Proceedings of the 

 Linnean Society of London, May 24th, 1888), gives 4,200 as his 

 total. In the "Flora Australiensis" are described 7,000 species. 

 The second edition of the " Census " published in 1889 includes 

 8,839 species, distributed among 1,409 genera and 156 orders. 



It was to be expected that a large amount of work would 

 remain unfinished. The complete investigation of the floi-a of a 

 continent is a work not of one ijeneration nor of two, but the 



