vi Preface. 



Most, but not all the books, which it was desirable to consult, were at 

 the author's command; Jims the necessity of further successive sup- 

 plements will be apparent, even irrespective of needful references to 

 future discoveries; because in the progress of geographic, medical, tech- 

 nologic and chemical inquiries many new plants are likely to be disclosed, 

 and additional uses of known plants to be elucidated. Thus, for instance, 

 among the trees and shrubs, or herbs and grasses, occurring in the 

 middle and higher altitudinal zones of Africa, or, nearer to us, of New 

 Guinea and the Sunda-Islands, many specific forms may be expected to 

 occur, which we could transfer to extra-tropical countries or to moun- 

 tains in equinoctial regions. Moreover the writer would modestly hope, 

 that his local efforts may prove to be useful in other parts of the globe 

 for extending rural pursuits; indeed, through the generous action of an 

 enlightened American, Capt. Ellwood Cooper, President of the State 

 Board of Horticulture of California, the first fragmentary publications, 

 then offered for Australian use, were deemed worthy of re-issue in San 

 Francisco. Gradual or partial reprints had also previously appeared 

 in weekly journals of Sydney and San Francisco and in some other 

 periodicals. 



As already intimated, the rapid progress of tillage almost throughout 

 all colonial dominions and in other new States is causing a growing 

 desire for general and particular indications of such plants, which a 

 colder clime excludes from the northern countries, in which many of the 

 colonists spent their youth; and it must be clear to any reflecting mind, 

 that in all warmer latitudes, as compared with the Middle-European zone, 

 is existing a vastly enlarged scope for cultural choice of plants. Thus, 

 indicative as these notes merely are, they may yet facilitate the selection. 

 More extensive information can then be sought for in larger, though less 

 comprehensive works already extant, or likely still to be called forth by 

 local requirements in other countries. The writer should even not be 

 disinclined, under fair support and encouragement, to issue, collateral to 

 the present volume, also another, exclusively devoted to the industrial 

 plants of the hotter zones, for the promotion of tropical culture, particu- 

 larly in our Australian continent. 



Considerable difficulty was experienced in fixing the limits of such 

 remarks, as are admissible into the present pages, because certain plants 

 may be important only under particular climatic "conditions and cultural 

 applications, or they may have been overrated in regard to the copious- 

 ness and relative value of their yield. Thus it was not always easy to 

 sift the chaff from the grain, when these notes were gathered; the 



