PREFACE. vii 



gathered ; they might under less rigorous restrictions indeed have been 

 indefinitely extended ; and although the author for more than twenty 

 years has been watching for industrial tests the plants introduced by 

 him into the Melbourne Botanic Garden, he had still to a very large 

 extent to rely implicitly on the experience of other observers elsewhere. 

 Here also it may at once be stated, that in all instances, when calcula- 

 tions of measurements and weights were quoted, such represent the 

 maximum always, as far as hitherto on record. To draw prominent 

 attention to the primarily important among the very many hundreds of 

 plants, referred to in these pages, the leading species have been designated 

 with an asterisk. It has not been easy in numerous instances to trace 

 the first source of that information on utilitarian plants, which we find 

 recorded in the various volumes of phytologic or technologic literature ; 

 many original observations are however contained in the writings of 

 Bernardin, Bentley, Brandis, Brockhaus, Candolle, Chambers, Collins, 

 Drury, Flueckiger, Asa Gray, Grisebach, Hanbury, Hooker, King, 

 Langethal, Lawson, Lindley, Lorentz, Loudon, Martius, Masters, 

 Meehan, Meyer, Michaux, Nuttall, Oliver, Pereira, Philippi, Porcher, 

 Rosenthal, Roxburgh, Sargent, Seemann, Simmonds, Stewart, Trimen, 

 Wittstein and also some others, to whose names reference is made 

 cursorily in the text. The volumes of the Agricultural Department of 

 Washington, of the Austrian Apotheker-Verein, of the Journal of 

 Applied Science, of the Bulletin de la Societe d'Acclimatation de France, 

 and of several other periodicals have likewise afforded data utilised on 

 this occasion. 



In grouping together, at the close of this volume, all the genera 

 enumerated, according to the products which they yield, facility is 

 afforded for tracing out any series of plants about which special economic 

 information may be sought, or which may prominently engage at any 

 time the attention of the cultivator, or the manufacturer, or the artisan. 

 Again, in placing together in index-form the respective industrial plants 

 according to their geographic distribution, as has likewise been done in 

 the concluding pages, it is rendered easy to order or obtain from abroad 

 the plants of such other countries, with which any settlers or colonists 

 may be in relation through commercial, literary or other intercourse. 



