ii Preface. 



apply only to countries with a climatic zone far narrower than that, 

 for which these pages were written. Many, but not all the books, 

 which it was desirable to consult, were at the author's command ; 

 thus the necessity of further successive supplements will be apparent, 

 even irrespective of needful references to future discoveries ; because 

 in the progress of geographic, rural, medical, technologic 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 Central Africa, or nearer to us of New 

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

 to occur, which we could advantageously transfer to any extra-tropical 

 countries or to mountains in other equatorial regions. Moreover the 

 writer would modestly hope, that his local efforts may prove to be 

 useful also 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 Horticiilture 

 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, 

 some under re-arrangement. But notwithstanding various sugges- 

 tions, offered to the writer, he has seen no reason to deviate in the 

 slightest from the original plan of the work ; nor seems the title of 

 the book assailable ; for although the number of recorded plants is 

 large, they still remain quite "select," inasmuch as they form only 

 a remarkably small percentage of the species, which constitute the 

 universal Flora of the world. The author feels proud, that Professor 

 Naudin, a great leader in scientific cultivations, has adopted this book 

 in a somewhat altered and enlarged French form more especially for 

 the use of the countries on the Mediterranean Sea {Manuel de Vaccli- 

 mateur, 1887). Some ruralists have thought, that various plants, 

 here alluded to as promising, were not deserving of any efforts to 

 acquire them. In answer we may single out the instance of Yac- 

 ciniums. How here we also would delight in seeing naturalised all 

 over the Australian Alps every one indeed of the numerous species, 

 affording edible fruit however small all entirely new for this part 

 of the world, and surely some as capable of cultural improvement, as 



