56 PROCEEDINaS OP THE 



nearly 450 closely printed pages : and it is to be understood 

 from the preface that the descriptions of all the species brought 

 home by Brown, together witli the additions from the same 

 country, collected or published by other botanists, were ready for 

 the press in 1810*. Now Brown, in the Appendix to Flinders's 

 Voyage, states that he collected nearly 4000 species (3900) in 

 Australia, and that the additions, not collected by himself, 

 amounted to only 300 more, whence it follows that the amazing 

 number of 4200 species of plants belonging to all Orders, 

 Cryptogamous and Phanerogamous, at least three-fourths of which 

 were new to Science, were collected (with the exception of 300), 

 accurately described, and accompanied by such observations t as 

 appear in the published volume of the ' Prodromus,' by one 

 tinaickMJ botanist, and this between the very end of 1801, when 

 he lauded in Australia, and 1810, by which time one half of the 

 manuscript had been actually seen through the press. 



This is a feat unexampled in the history of botanical science, 

 and it may interest the Fellows present if I be allowed to bring 

 under their notice several circumstances connected with Brown's 

 early life, some already on record, others communicated to me 

 by himself or by his friends, that in some degree explain how it 

 was that these great results were obtained in so short a time. 



During boyhood Brown acquired such a knowledge of the 

 plants of his native country, that when only 18 he communicated 

 to the Natural History Society of Edinburgh a list of additions 

 made to the ' Flora Scotica' of Lightfoot, accompanied by critical 

 observations. When employed in Ireland as Assistant Sur- 

 geon and Ensign in a regiment of Fencibles, he botanized 

 assiduously, not merely collecting, but studying his collections ; 

 aud when transferred to London he was enabled to devote 

 months of study in the Herbarium and Library of Sir Joseph 

 Banks, to which the most liberal access was given him, and where he 

 enjoyed the friendship of Dryauder, Banks's Librarian. Here 

 his appetite for acquiring botanical knowledge amounted, I 



* Not only were the commencing and concluding parts of the ' Prodromus* 

 never printed, but the published volume was withdrawn from sale \ery shortly 

 after its appearance. This circumstance is mentioned in the 61oge pronounced 

 on Brown by Martius, wiio adds that it was owing to a hostile criticism of its 

 latinity that appeared iu the ' Edinburgh Review.' In the translation of the 

 eloge communicated to the ' Annals and Magazine of Natural History' (for 

 May 1859) by the late Prol'. Ilenfrey, it is stated that the ' Prodromus ' remained 

 in the hands of the publisher for many years. I may add that in 1856 

 Mr. Ijrown informed me that the ' Prodromus' was printed by himself, costing 

 him about i'lOO, and that after about 2G copies were sold at ISa. each, he re- 

 oilled all the remaining copies. I made a note of this at the time (1856) and 

 nserted it in a copy which he gave me in 1839. 



t That the treatment of the unpublished Orders was the same as that of the 

 published may bo inferred from a reference to Brown's two papers on Musci, 

 read before this Society, and by the descriptions and notes on tlie Thalamifloral 

 and Calycilloral Orders publislied in the Botanical Appendix to Flinders's 

 Voyage, and which, being counterparts of the Orders contained in the published 

 volume of the ' Prodromus,' are presumably excerpts from the unpublished one. 



