[xxxiii] 



on the day before he died but he was unconscious. His wife took the 

 volumes and laid them upon his bed, so that the hand that fashioned 

 them could touch them' (Scott, 1914: 385). Flinders was only thirty- 

 nine. As an appendix his fine book has Robert Brown's important 

 General remarks, geographical and systematical, on the botany of Terra 

 Australis' where the some new families, including Pittosporeae (p 542) 

 Cunoniaceae (p. 548), Rhizophoreae (p. 549), Celastrinae (p. 554) and 

 Stackhouseae (p. 555) and the genera Flindersia (p. 595), Eupomatia 

 (p. 591) and Eudesmia (p. 599) were first published. It was advertised in 

 Bent s Monthly Literartj Advertiser 1814 no. 112: 59 (10 August 1814). 



TRANSLATION OF THE PREFACE TO BROWN'S 'PRODROMUS' 



Hethat hassomewhat in his mind of Greek or Latin, is requested nowa- 



days to be civtl,and translate it intoEnglish for the benefit of the company. 



John Eachard (c. 1636—97) 

 [Browns prefatory notes (praemonenda) on pp. vi-viii are in Latin 

 hke the rest of the Prodromus and, since they give information about 

 his geographical abbreviations etc. liable to be overlooked, they are 

 translated below for general convenience, the remarks on this matter 

 in 1670 by John Eachard of Cambridge being as relevant now as then 

 Brown s adoption here of the term perianthium, as used by Mirbel 

 for the floral leaves of Monocotyledons was unfortunate, as earlier 

 authors, notably Linnaeus, had applied this term to the calyx, involu- 

 cres, spathes and glumes; Browns authority in endorsing this transfer 

 of apphcation prevented the general acceptance in English-speaking 

 countnes of the more apt term perigonium introduced by Fdriedrich 

 Ehrhart in 1788 for the Tntegumentum genitalium' and widely 

 used m German-speaking countries. It is worthy of note that Brown 

 in his last paragraph declined to accept the view then current that ferns 

 were monocotyledonous plants, the prothallus being then regarded as a 

 single cotyledon which became evident on germination.] 



1 have thought it necessary to prefix a few words by way of warning to 

 this volume above all regarding its imperfections, and also in order to explain 

 several Symbols as well as one or two terms, either new or used in special 

 way. r 



Some other remarks concerning the plan of the work will be more fittingly 

 made in another volume completing the whole work and very soon to be sent 

 to the press. 



When about to produce this flora in parts, I perceived that it was absolutely 

 necessary to adopt a natural system of classification, for only in this way 



