BY JOSEPH LAUTEKER, M.D. IX 



twelve years afterwards, arranged the plants according to the 

 Linnean system, and Banks, who lived to the good age of 77, 

 was knighted, and held the position of President of the Royal 

 Society for many years. The plants of this expedition were 

 never described in a separate work. 



The first Australian Flora (" Nov^b Hollandite Plantarum 

 Specimen") was edited in Paris in 1804 to 1806 by Houtton 

 de Labillardiere, who, at the age of 36, accompanied 

 D'Entrecasteaux's expedition, sent in search of La Perouse, in 

 1791. De Labillardiere's Flora follows the Linnean System, 

 and contains plants from Tasmania and from Western and 

 South Australia. Soon after De Labillardiere, Robert Brown, 

 a Scotch military surgeon, then 28 years of age, set his foot on 

 our shore m 1801 ; he was persuaded by Sir Joseph Banks to join 

 as botanist Captain Flinders's expedition for surveying the coasts 

 of Australia. After four years of collecting he conveyed to 

 London -1,000 species, mostly new and collected on the eastern 

 half of Australia. In 1810 his " Australian Flora " appeared in 

 London under the title of "Podromus Flora? Novte Hollandins." 

 This work shows the genius and the great assiduity of Robert 

 Brown. Many years had to be spent in comparing the 

 Australian specimens with similar or identical ones from other 

 parts of the globe. The book was for a long time the best 

 Flora of the world, and was chiefly instrumental in abolishing 

 the antiquated system of Linn«us. Robert Brown came to 

 high honours in all Europe, and died at the age of 85 years. 



Sir Joseph Banks, after having initiated Robert Brown, 

 rendered another highly valuable service to our botanical 

 knowledge of Australia by recommending, in 1814, Mr. Allan 

 Cunningham, of the Kew Gardens, as a collector of Australian 

 plants. Allan Cunningham, then only 28 years of age, collected 

 first for nineteen weeks with Oxley on the Lachlan and 

 Macquarie, and then accompanied King's surveying expedition 

 in the " Mermaid " to the western and northern coast, making 

 valuable additions to the Australian flora. He also was in New 

 Zealand. As an explorer, he was the first man who entered 

 the Darling Downs and who examined Mount Lindsay. His 

 brother Richard was appointed Government Botanist for New 

 South Wales, and was murdered by the blacks when he 



