iv PREFACE. 



cannot be said by any one else in Australia who has written any- 

 thing about them. It will be gathered from the above that the 

 facilities for acquiring information and making observations have 

 given me the necessary qualifications to write with authority on 

 the subject. Since the experiments already referred to were 

 carried out, the publication of my essay on the " Forage Plants 

 and Grasses of Australia," which I read at the Melbourne 

 University before the Australasian Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science, and the publication by the New South Wales 

 Government of my " Census of the Grasses of New South Wales,'' 

 and of my work on the " Indigenous Forage Plants of Australia," 

 together with figures and descriptions of some Australian grasses, 

 there has certainly been a great amount of interest awakened in 

 the subject, not only in Australian scientists and pastoralists, but 

 in those resident in other countries. Not long since I wrote a 

 voluminous report on the herbage of this country, at the request of 

 the American Consul, for the information of the United States 

 Government. 



Many successful pastoralists have told me that they knew little 

 or nothing about the economic value of the herbage oh their grazing 

 areas until they saw my figures and read my descriptions of it, and 

 are now convinced that the indigenous herbage is better suited to 

 the conditions of the climate than a great many of the exotics 

 which have been introduced and recommended for cultivation in 

 many parts of the country. What are known as English grasses 

 will succeed well enough in those parts of Australia which have a 

 climate and rainfall somewhat similar to those of Northern Europe ; 

 but these comprise an exceedingly small area in comparison with 

 the whole of the continent. To sow such grasses on most of the 

 grazing areas in this country would only be courting failure. 



It would appear that in the early days of settlement the value of 

 the native forage plants and grasses occupied some attention, and 

 different views were entertained on the subject. Sir Joseph Banks, 

 to whom Australia is so much indebted for its early settlement, and 

 for the development of its vegetable resources, remarks in one of his 

 papers : " The herbage of the Colony is by no means so well 

 adapted to sheep farming as that of Europe, and therefore the 

 progress of the flocks will be slow." This opinion, however, was 



