62 PROCEEDINGS OF TUE 



fossils, and the like. This desultory labour was perhaps better 

 suited to a young colonial establishment than a more persistent 

 aim at the great one of a full flora : but it ultimately led to the 

 flora being undertaken by our then President, George Bentham, 

 who was most loyally helped by Mueller, who sent the whole 

 of his large Australian collections over in turn as required, 

 every specimen being carefully ticketed, with new names in 

 case of need. Here we may note the prevailing foible of Mueller's 

 mind — it was his extraoi'dinary vanity and love of distinction. 

 He begged Bentham to adopt all his suggested names, if the 

 plants were new, but to discard in silence any which were super- 

 fluous. It is well known that he constantly used two names, 

 sometimes even three, when publishing new species, so that, 

 whatever view might be taken of his genera, he would yet be 

 quoted as the author of the species. 



The first volume of the ' Flora Australiensis ' came out in 1863, 

 the seventh and last in 1878. Mueller's herbarium had come 

 and gone, had been fully utilized, and returned to its owner 

 without the slightest mishap, while Bentham had been engaged 

 on its writing, and whilst still carrying on his share of the 

 ' Grenera Plantarum.' 



It would be impossible to follow so voluminous a writer 

 through his list of works, it must here sufBce to indicate the 

 most salient of his productions. Two of them have already been 

 mentioned, his ' Select Plants ' must be now alluded to : in this 

 he drew up a list, witli short descriptions, of commonly cultivated 

 plants which might be found useful to cultivate in Victoria : this 

 work attained the greatest popularity of all his books ; under 

 slightly varied titles it reached its 9th edition in 1895, including 

 the Indian, New South Wales, German, and Prench editions. 



' Eucalyptographia ; a descriptive Atlas of the Eucalypts of 

 Australia,' was completed in 1879-84. He also began similar 

 atlases on Acacia and Salsolaceous plants, and one part on 

 Candolleaceous plants, which was his pet name for the Stylidese. 

 His 'Systematic Census of Australian Plants' in 1882 is a marvel 

 of hard work, while the Second Census in 1889 showed his 

 love for changing names, at its worst. In common with so many 

 of his countrymen, he delighted to modify, under pretence of 

 emending, the sequence and scope of the natural orders; but 

 a more inconvenient system was one he affected of combining 

 several genera into one. 



His channels of publication were very varied and numerous ; 

 he published many new species in local journals, from which he 

 had " pulls " struck ofl' and widely distributed, but bearing no 

 bint of pagination. The present writer vividly recalls the trouble 

 it caused him, when busied on the compilation of the ' Index 

 Kewensis,' to hunt up some such periodicals as the 'Melbourne 

 Chemist and Druggist,' or Wing's ' Southern Science llecord,' of 

 whicb no complete sets could be readily found in this country, 

 merely to get the actual page. 



