13^ PREFACE, 



of 'The Plants indigenous to the Colony of Victoria/ and three octavo 

 volumes^ all but complete, of * Fragmeuta Phytographise Australia?/ 

 comprising above a thousand detailed descriptions of plants, whose 

 general accuracy will bear the test of a very close examination. When 

 indeed it was first contemplated to bring out a general Flora of Austraha 

 under Government sanction. Dr. Mueller was naturally looked to as the 

 botanist the best qualified for undertaking the task of preparing it ; 

 and in the hope that it would be entrusted to him, he had devoted his 

 utmost energies to collecting the necessary materials. But there was 

 one indispensable step, the examination of European herbaria where 

 the published types were deposited, which he was unable to take ; and 

 it is a signal proof of the generosity of his disposition and the absence 

 of all selfishness, that when it was proposed to him that the preparation 

 pf tlie Flora should be confided to me, on account of the facilities which 



F 



my position here gave rae for the exammation of the Australian collec- 

 tions I have mentioned above, lie not only gave up his long-cherished 

 projects in my favour, but promised to do all in his power to assist me, 

 a promise which he has fulfilled with the most perfect faith. A joint 

 work was at first thought of, but, independentl}^ of the ordinary draw- 

 backs attending on joint works, the distance which separates us, requiring 

 four months to obtain an answer to every trivial doubt or query, put 

 this quite out of the question. I alone am therefore responsible for tbe 

 details of this work, for the limitation given to genera and species, for 

 their characters and description. But important observations have 

 been frequently suggested by the published w^orks of Dr. Mueller, 

 or by his manuscript notes, which he has freely communicated; and 

 a still more essential and generous contribution to the work has been 

 the loan of the very rich herbarium he had amassed for the Australian 

 Florn, which he remits to me in instalments. One beneficial result to 

 science of the course he has thus pursued is that there will be for future 

 reference duplicate authentic specimens here and in Australia of the 

 great mnjority of Australian species. 



This herbarium comprises chiefly : 



1. The specimens collected by Dr. Mueller himself in the course of 

 his extensive land-journeys in Australia (upwards of 20,000 miles), as 

 well as during his residence in Victoria. Of one importaut portion of 

 these plants, the North Australian collection, the set in the llookeriaii 

 herbarium is better and more complete than his own. Dr, Mueller at 

 that time did not contemplate the publications he has since undertaken, 

 and with his usual generosity he wrote to Sir W. J. Hooker, in 1857, 



