LINNEAK SOCIETY OF LONDOIf. 55 



in wliicli he has not been surpassed by any botanical writer. 

 Whatever research Brown undertook, he followed to the extreme 

 point attainable with the instruments and apjDliances * at his 

 command, and where others have advanced beyond the goal lie 

 attained to, it has been by working on the foundations he laid, 

 by tlie light and aids of correlative advances in chemistry and 

 physics, and by the use of optical instruments unknown in his 

 day. 



First in order I will take the ' Prodromus Floras Novae 

 HoUandiae '; for though preceded by his account of iheProteacece, 

 read before this Society in 1809, and by his paper on Asclepiadece, 

 communicated later in the same year to the Weruerian Society of 

 Edinburgh, the first of these is devoted in great measure to 

 plants described in the ' Prodromus,' and the latter is more con- 

 veniently taken up with the far more important papers on the 

 same subject that appeared at a much later date. 



The first and only volume of the ' Prodromus ' which was 

 published appeared in 1810. In point of novelty of plant forms 

 and structures which it describes, accuracy in details, precision 

 of language, wealth of observations, and far-reaching views of 

 classification, it maintains to this day the unique position which 

 was assigned to it on its appearance. Furthermore, it is rightly 

 regarded as the complement to the great work of Jussieu in 

 respect of the perfecting and extending the natural system of 

 plants, for it modified many of the Jussieuan families, amplified 

 others by hitherto neglected or misinterpreted characters of the 

 highest systematic value, and illustrated all that were described by 

 observations obtained through a study of the plants of other 

 countries than Australia, and a profound knowledge of the 

 writings of his predecessors. I may cite, as notable examples of 

 this, his observations under or upon the Orders Marsiliacece, 

 Graminecs, Rutacece, Scitaviinece, Orcliidece, Aroidece, Cycadecd 

 (where their plurality of embryos is first indicated), Santalacece, 

 AcanthacecB, Myrsinece, Epacridece, ICricece, and Goodenoviece. 



The ' Prodromus ' embraces 46i genera, of which nearly one 

 third were described for the first time, and upwards of 2000 

 species, three fourths of which were new to science. Of these a 

 very large number (a far larger number than any other Flora 

 contains) are, in relation to the known vegetation of other parts 

 of the globe, anomalous or abnormal in structure and habit. 

 They are antipodean alike in character and country, and yet 

 tliree quarters of a century of further knowledge of the Australian 

 Flora has in but few instances disturbed the position, limita- 

 tion, or diagnoses of the orders, genera, and species contained in 

 the ' Prodromus.' 



Nor are the circumstances under which the ' Prodromus ' 

 was composed less noteworthy than the work itself. It contains 



* Brown's microscopical work was wholly performed by the simple micro- 

 scope, aud protoplasm was unheard of when he wrote. 



