THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 143 



Woolls, Mr. O'Shanassy, and others. Nearly all the explorers 

 collected and sent their plants to this Herbarium. Many plants 

 collected by R. Brown in Australia from 1802 to 1804 were 

 sent as a donation from Kew Gardens, also a good many 

 of Cunningham's and other collectors'. Then followed large and 

 important collections of plants by Drummond from Western 

 Australia, by Dr. Priess, also from Western Australia, and by 

 Lieber from Port Jackson. Of cryptogams, there are many 

 mosses named by Hampe, Mitten, Law, and others. Hepaticas, 

 by Gottiche and Stephens. Lichens, by Dr. J. Miiller. Fungi, by 

 Berkeley, Cooke, and Massee. Algae, by Harvey, Sonder, and 

 Agardth. Other countries are also well represented ; for instance, 

 from the Island of Sicily alone there are well-preserved plants 

 typical of 1,000 different species. British Islands, Austria, Russia, 

 France, Germany — in fact, nearly all European countries, as well 

 as Asia and Africa, swell up the enormous list. The late Govern- 

 ment Botanist was under the impression that the number of dried 

 specimens amounted to considerably over a million, but Mr. 

 Luehmann fancies that this is rather over-estimated ; in any case, 

 an individual student may have much more than he can possibly 

 require. Besides the plants, there is a valuable botanical library, 

 commencing with old tomes written at the very commencement 

 of scientific botanical research, and ending with the latest 

 botanical journal, 1898. Here the student can increase his 

 knowledge from the theories and surmises of those doughty 

 veterans who gradually placed fact to fact and character to 

 character, and so helped to build up the glorious science now 

 known as botany. 



CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE FLORA OF VICTORIA. 



No. VIII. 



By F. M. Reader, F.R.H.S. 

 Stipa Macalpinei, sp. nov., F. M. Reader. 



Culms short, usually under 6 inches, single or somewhat 

 tufted. Panicle and culm reaching a height of from 10 inches to 

 about 2 feet. Rootlets whitish, shining, more or less invested 

 with greyish soft and loosely woolly fibrils. Leaves fiat, the 

 upper part usually only involute, from less than 2 inches to about 

 8 inches long, gradually becoming narrower, and finally ending 

 in a point. Upper or inner side covered with very short whitish 

 shining hairs, or nearly glabrous ; the lower side sparsely hairy 

 or glabrous. The upper leaf with sheath long, loose, and broad, 

 embracing the base of the panicle; the sheath glabrous or 

 sprinkled with a few hairs, and a line of hairs along the upper 

 margin, continuing up the ligule. Lower leaves with shorter 

 sheaths ; the sheaths densely invested with almost paleaceous 



