774 president's address. 



In 1838, Dr. Ludwig Preiss, at Swan River, made collections 

 •of upwards of 2,000 species of plants, including Cryptogamia, 

 which were sold after a complete account of them had been 

 published by various authors in " Plantar Preissianse," edited by 

 Dr. Lehmann in 1844-5. 



In 1839, Mr. James Drummond, of Swan River, one of the 

 most zealous of Australian botanic collectors, commenced opera- 

 tions, and continued his work for upwards of 15 years. His 

 labours took the practical form of collecting and forwarding for 

 sale in Europe the plants of his district, including a vast number 

 of novelties, rivalling in interest and importance those of any 

 other part of the world. Dr. Lindley's able sketch of the vegetation 

 of the Swan River is founded chiefly on Drummond's collections. 



Capt. Mangles, at this time, collected many species of Western 

 Australian Plants, and John Bailey, the Colonial Botanist of 

 South Australia, arrived and made collections of living plants 

 and seeds ; but, as the native flora of Adelaide is probably the 

 least interesting of those of all the Australian colonies, he soon 

 directed his energy more towards the introduction of useful foreign 

 economic plants. Whether he introduced those which, in many 

 parts of the neighbourhood have almost entirely superseded the 

 native vegetation, I do not know, but the varieties and masses of 

 foreign plants which clothe many hundreds of acres of land 

 lying between the capital and the mountains, is truly surprising. 



In 1839, an Antarctic expedition, in H.M. Discovery ships 

 " Erebus " and " Terror," under the command of Sir James Clark 

 Ross, and accompanied by Sir Joseph Hooker as botanist, and 

 Dr. Lyall, was started, and its four years' work resulted in the 

 publication of six magnificent volumes on the New Zealand, 

 Tasmanian and Antarctic Islands' floras, the price of which is 

 unfortunately almost prohibitory. The preface to the " Flora of 

 Tasmania " is an admirable introductory essay on the flora of 

 Australia generally, to which I am much indebted in connection 

 with this address. 



The several expeditions heretofore mentioned were, for the 

 most part, comparative child's-play, compared with the land 



