Flora of Australia.-] INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. XXIX 
That the relations between the epochs of the flowering and the fruiting of plants, and the seasons 
of the year, are the same in Australia as elsewhere, and most remarkably so, the Orchidea being 
spring flowers, the LeguminoscP summer, the CompositcP autumn, and the Cryptogam* winter. 
That the peculiarities of the Australian Flora in no way disturb the principles of natural 
arrangement derived from the study of the Flora of the globe apart from that of Australia ; for after 
having attempted to consider the Australian vegetation in a classificatory point of view, shutting out 
of my view, as far as I could, that of other countries, I have been led to the conclusion that the 
authors of the Natural System— Ray, Linnams ,* and the Jussicus— might have developed the same 
Natural System had they worked upon Australian plants instead of upon European. 
I find further, that the classes, orders, genera, and species, may be about as well (or as ill) fixed 
or limited by a study of their Australian members as by those of any other country similarly cir- 
cumstanced, and that there is the same vagueness as to the exact limits of natural groups, a similar 
inequality amongst them in numerical value and botanical characters, and an analogous difficulty in 
forming subclasses intermediate between classes and orders, as other Floras present. The Australian 
Flora, in short, neither breaks down nor improves the Natural System of plants as a whole, though 
it throws great light on its parts ; the Australian genera fall into their places in that system well 
enough, though that system was developed before Australia was known botanienlly. and was chiefly 
founded upon a study of the vegetation of its antipodes. 
Thus, whether the Australian Flora is viewed under the aspect of its morphology and structure, 
as exhibited by its natural classification, or its numerical proportions or geographical distribution, it 
presents essentially the same primary features as do those of the other great continents : and it hence 
appears to me rash to assume that its origin belongs to another epoch of the earth's history than that 
of other Floras, when the proportions of its classes, etc., are identically the same with these ; or that 
it should be attributed to a distinct creative effort, if this is manifested only in effecting morphological 
differences requisite to constitute species and genera in our classification, without disturbing the pro- 
portions of these ; or that the local influence of the Australian climate should be essentially different 
from that of other countries, and yet effect no physiological change in the periods of flowering and 
fruiting, or produce any other functional disturbances of the vegetable organisms, or affect the agency 
of humidity, temperature, soil, and elevation, on plants. 
I shall now take the Australian Flora in greater detail, and dwell more at length upon those 
features from which I have derived the above conclusions. 
four salient points : — I. Ray's 
Monocotyledons and Dieotyledoi 
of them accessible to scientific i 
tern of Classes and Orders. II 
Com 
ler of th 
Xatn 
s of the . 
: 
less (per 
mps <_ 
call 
.1 Ju-in 
in Or 
of all plants 
into 
Lim 
aeus's forming i 
ttural 
_TC 
under Ray's 
artificial as many of Linnseus's 
IV. The separation of Gymnosperms, by Brown, which is the first step towards a natural classification of the 
3 of Dicotyledons. (See Lond. Joum. of Bot. and Kew Gard. Misc. ix. 314 note.) 
