772 president's address. 



F. W. Sieber, of Prague, visited New South Wales and made 

 considerable collections, which were sold : it is from him that we 

 get the name Siebera, a by no means conspicuous genus, and this 

 shews how thoroughly the botanical field of the country had been 

 exploited. 



In 1823, 1825, and 1829, the vicinity of King George's Sound, 

 Wilson's Promontory, Cape Aird, and Lucky Bay, were explored 

 botanically by Mr. William Baxter, a gardener sent out by 

 private enterprise to collect seeds and plants: the genus Baxteria 

 of the Juncacece was named after him. 



Mr. Charles Fraser, already mentioned, a soldier of the 73rd 

 Regiment, after his arrival in New South Wales, became an 

 indefatigable collector and explorer, visited Swan River in 

 1826-7, and Moreton Bay in 1828, and wrote excellent accounts 

 of those districts. He afterwards visited Tasmania and took 

 charge of the Sydney Botanical Gardens. 



In 1827, Robert Sweet published his "Flora Australasica," 

 which is the first really artistic completed work wholly devoted 

 to Australian botany, and contains 56 plates of Australian 

 flowers beautifully drawn and coloured. 



Sir Thomas Mitchell's four expeditions into the interior, 

 owing to his great fondness for natural history, and excellent 

 system of observation, resulted in valuable contributions to 

 botanical knowledge. In the first (1831) he was accompanied by 

 Richard Cunningham, before mentioned, whose zeal for research 

 led to his wandering away from his party, when he was murdered 

 by the blacks. 



The second expedition (1835) was sent out to explore the 

 Darling River, and the third (1836) to explore the same river and 

 the mountains of Victoria and the Alpine vegetation, with the 

 assistance of Mr. Richardson. The fourth (1846) was to sub- 

 tropical Australia and the Gulf country : the accounts of these 

 expeditions, and particularly the last, abound in interesting 

 botanical information. 



Mr. James Backhouse, in 1832, visited New South Wales, 

 Tasmania, Queensland, Victoria, South Australia, and Western 



