president's address. 781 



themselves seem to have exceeded in importance and interest 

 those of all previous explorers. 



In 1863, was commenced the publication of the "Flora 

 Australiensis," by George Bentham, assisted by Mueller, the 

 chief foundation of which was the vast herbarium of Sir William 

 Hooker, but every other Australian herbarium of any importance 

 was examined, and this involved so great an amount of time and 

 trouble that the last of the seven volumes did not appear till 

 1878. The book was published under the authority of the 

 several Governments of Australia, and is unquestionably the 

 most important Australian botanical work ever published. It 

 contains a minute description of almost every Australian plant, 

 whether conspicuous or otherwise, and it is not an easy matter to 

 find any plant within a hundred miles of Sydney which is not 

 described in it. Fortunately, Bentham was able to complete 

 it before his death, and it now stands an imperishable monument 

 to his memory. The seven volumes contain complete descriptions 

 of upwards of 8000 species of plants, with references to at least 

 as many synonyms, the approximate number of recognised species 

 of living plants in the whole world being, up to the end of the 

 nineteenth century, according to Professor Vines, 275,576. 



In order to emphasize the importance of this great work, Her 

 Majesty Queen Victoria was advised to confer on Bentham the 

 Companionship of the Order of St. Michael and St. George, and 

 to raise Mueller, who already possessed that distinction, to the 

 Knight Companionship of the Order. 



The last volume of the Flora having been issued 23 years ago, 

 it was considered extremely desirable that a supplement, con- 

 taining all subsequent discoveries, should be issued ; and as a 

 large proportion of these discoveries belonged to Queensland, it 

 was hoped that the matter would be entrusted to Mr. F. M. Bailey, 

 Botanist to the Queensland Government, whose numerous publi- 

 cations, such as the "Synopsis of the Queensland Flora," "The 

 Companion for the Queensland Student of Plant Life," "The 

 Fern World of Australia," and its companion, " Lithograms of 



