16 



perseveringly followed up his elucidation of the Australian native 

 vegetation." As causes for the delay in issuing a supplementary 

 volume the following reasons were advanced : — 



(1) "As new plants continued to be discovered ... an early 



supplement "would soon have proved incomplete." 



(2) " The novel species, gradually and connectedly added 



through the ' Fragmenta Phytographise Australife' and 

 other publications, were all given in the Baron's first and 

 second ' Census of Australian Plants' np to 1889 — a third 

 being soon due." 



(3) " Hitherto, with a single exception, no desire for a compact 



supplement was expressed." 



With regard to the first reason, it will probably be as weighty 

 in 1993 as it is at the present day ; and if seriously regarded 

 might defer the publication of a supplement until the Greek 

 Kalends ; the second is valueless, as the publication of a list can 

 never supply the place of any portion of a ' Flora'; and the 

 third is an opinion on a matter of fact in which the Baron has 

 probably been misinformed. 



These two great specialists, Baron von Mueller and Mr. 

 Bailey, are now in correspondence on the matter, and our 

 Colonial Botanist is willing to withdraw if the Baron will under- 

 take to issue a supplement in accordance with the system of 

 classification employed by Bentham ; and, this promise being 

 given, will then co-operate with the Baron to the fullest and 

 most unselfish extent. 



Although the colonies of Victoria, Queensland, South Aus- 

 tralia, and Tasmania have each their respective floras, the 

 botanists of the mother colony of New South Wales were TNnth- 

 out this aid to their studies until the present year, when a 

 "Handbook of the Flora of New South Wales" was published 

 under the joint names of Messrs. Charles Moore an i Ernst Betche, 

 giving descriptions of all flowering plants and ferns indigenous 

 to that colony. The systematic arrangement of the Handbook is 

 that of Baron von Mueller in his " Census of Australian Plants," 



