10* PREFACE. 



the property of the Linnean Society, the types of the Australian species 

 described by bira, cbiefly in Eees's Cyclopa3dia. 



With the few Australian species described from the herbarium of the 

 late A. B. Lambeut, I have had much diflBculty. At his death the pre- 

 paration of his collections for sale was so ill-managed, that it is very diffi- 

 cult to ascertain where any particular portions of it may now be deposited. 

 A few have found their way to the Kew herbaria, many were purchased 

 for Berlin and St. Petersburg, and other distant Continental towns; 

 some were, I believe, bought by the British Museum; and are still lying 

 among their unarranged collections ; and souie others, but, as I under- 



derstand, not the Australian portion, are in the Fielding herbarium at 

 Oxford. I have, therefore, in most instances been obliged to rely chiefly 

 on circumstantial evidence for the identification of such of these plants 

 as are only known by the brief diagnoses of Gr. Don and others. 



Of the important and extensive "West Australian collections of Mr. 

 James Dhummond I have had for examination complete sets of excel- 

 lent specimens in the Kew herbaria, and in the majority of instances I 

 have seen them in diflerent sets so as to check the one with the other. 

 I have thus been enabled to identify nearly the whole of the species 

 published by Turczanikow in the ' Bulletin de la Societe Imperiale des 

 •Naturalistes de Moscou.' As these collections are very generally distri- 

 buted,! have quoted the numbers attached to the specimens where I could 

 do it with any certainty. Unfortunately there is much confusion in some 

 of these numbers, Mr. Drummond having recommenced a fresh series 

 with each of the five collections he sent over, besides one or two supple- 

 mentary sets. The first collection, of which many were published by 

 Lindley and others, were not originally numbered, but numbers were 

 afterwards added in a few additional sets sent home. In the Hookerian 

 herbarium, owing to the belief at the time that these numbers were not 

 certain enough for quotation, they were often not preserved; in most 

 instances where they are kept there is no indication of which series 

 thuy belong to, and in other herbaria I have often found them referred 

 to a wrong series. These numbers cannot therefore be relied on abso- 

 lutely for identification without checking them by descriptions. 



To Dr, 0. W. SoNDER, of Hamburg, Dr. Harvey's able collaborator 

 in the ' Flora Capensis/ I have to offer my best thanks for the libe- 

 rality with which he transmits to me for examination the whole of hi^ 

 Australian herbarium^ — an invaluable aid, inasmuch as it comprises a 

 nearly complete series of typical specimens of the Plantj^ Pl:li;ISSIA^^E• 

 As many portions of that rich collection were confided for publication 



