president's address. 785 



and these were accompanied by very complete botanical descrip- 

 tions. The drawings were mostly by himself, but in some he was 

 ably assisted by Mr. A. J. Stopps. Fitzgerald generously allowed 

 the Government to publish his w T ork under the name of "Austra- 

 lian Orchids," without any remuneration to himself, and piloted 

 it through the press to the extent of the first volume and four 

 more parts, when, to the great regret of his friends and all lovers 

 of botany, he died in 1S92. 



One further part was afterwards published, with the able 

 assistance of Mr. Henry Deane, M.A., F.L.S., Engineer-in-Chief 

 for Railways, and Stopps ; but the difficulty of carrying on 

 the work, without the help of the author, was found to be insuper- 

 able, and the residue of the money, voted by Parliament, was 

 devoted to the preparation and publication, through Mr. J. H. 

 Maiden, F.L.S., Curator of the Botanical Gardens, f-tydney, 

 assisted by Mr. W. S. Campbell, F.L.S., of seven parts of an 

 elegant little book called ''The Flowering Plants and Ferns of 

 Australia." 



In 1892, the Governments of Queensland, New South Wales, 

 Victoria, and South Australia, extended their patronage of 

 botany to a new branch, and published at their joint cost Dr. 

 M. C. Cooke's "Handbook of Australian Fungi," which was 

 illustrated with 36 coloured plates. 



The nature of the vegetation of Queensland seems to have 

 greatly encouraged botanical research, for there have always been 

 a considerable number of enthusiasts there. Besides Bailey, I 

 may mention Mr. John F. Shirley, B. Sc, who, during 15 years 

 preceding 1893, had gathered and mounted 2,500 species of 

 plants, being about half of the known flora of the country: also 

 the late Dr. Joseph Bancroft, M.D., whose medical proclivities 

 encouraged him to investigate the chemical properties of plants, 

 and who was then sanguine of success in the preparation of a 

 valuable ophthalmic remedy from Duboisia myoporoides, from 

 which a drug, at one time worth over one hundred pounds an 

 ounce, was producible. 



