96 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



highly he esteemed the advantages of seeing plants in their native 

 regions, and himself collecting them by making two trips many 

 years later to Western Australia, one in 1867, and one in 1877, 

 although at the time of the latter excursion he was over 50, and 

 might reasonably have been excused from exposing himself to the 

 discomforts and privations of rough bush travelling. 



" In one respect our late Government Botanist was not so 

 fortunate as in those to which I have referred. He had not 

 what he must have keenly desired — the pleasure and distinction 

 of writing the history of Australian plants. Though in 1861 he must 

 have been far and away the botanist who had the most complete 

 and most practical knowledge of the Australian flora, he yielded 

 his claim to George Bentham, and afforded the latter every 

 assistance in the production of the ' Flora Australiensis.' This, as 

 has been well observed, ' showed a fine trait in Baron von Mueller's 

 character. No doubt the preparation cf such a work had long 

 been the dream of his scientific life, and his labours had been con- 

 tinuously directed towards its accomplishment for many years. 

 It should always be remembered to his honour that in this trying 

 position he stood aside, effacing himself and his natural claims to 

 be considered.' 



" It is one of Baron von Mueller's claims on our admiration 

 and affectionate remembrance that he united in an uncommon 

 degree a devotion to two branches of botany not usually 

 associated ; while he possessed a thorough knowledge of the 

 systematic botany of the phanerogams, and was delighted to 

 discuss exhaustively the claims of genera to be regarded as distinct 

 or to be united, the affinity and grouping of genera and orders, 

 and the relation and sequence of species, he also devoted no 

 small amount of time to economic botany, and was the author of 

 the most popular and widely-read of recent treatises on this subject, 

 "The Select Plants;" and as early as 1853 he recommended as 

 a new industry the distillation of oil from eucalypti, and a few 

 years later advocated the planting of trees of this genus in Europe 

 and other parts of the world for forest purposes, so that as a 

 result of his advocacy, and that of Ramel, Thozet, and others, 

 various species are now found extensively planted in South 

 Europe, Algeria, the Transvaal, New Zealand, India, Jamaica, 

 California, Mexico, and South America. 



" Certainly we may look back on the career amongst us of 

 Baron von Mueller as one in most respects worthy of the admira- 

 tion and imitation of those of our young students who are fired by 

 the noble ambition of extending the boundaries of knowledge in 

 some branch of science, of applying its teachings to increase the 

 well-being of society, and of earning the praise of their fellow- 

 men. I have placed the love of fame last among the motives for 

 leading the nobler life — some may be disposed to say this love is 



