for the year 1886. xix 



publication, that the last rather large issue has become 

 already almost exhausted, so tlmt another edition must early 

 be rendered available ; and such a work to be complete and 

 reliable must necessarily be kept up in consonance with the 

 progress of discovery and research emanating from any part 

 of the globe, only the products of the hottest tropical 

 regions being excluded from our cultural scope. 



" The third annual supplement of the Census of Australian 

 Plants for 1885 was edited in the early part of this year. 

 It advances the number of vasculares to a total of 8800 

 well-marked indigenous species, exactly described ; to these 

 20 have been added since, the total of the whole Australian 

 flora of vascular plants^ when once fully known, not likely 

 much exceeding 9000 species. 



" Collections from unexplored regions are much solicited, 

 particularly, also, from the more central regions of Australia, 

 as therefrom also the observations on the geographic dis- 

 tribution, on the utilitarian purposes, and on the degree of 

 variability of the known species can be followed further 

 out, always with due acknowledgment of the aid thus 

 afforded by the senders. 



" Some detailed elucidations of Papuan plants from the 

 collection of the Australian Geographical Society's Ex- 

 pedition under Captain Everill, obtained by Mr. Baeuerlen, 

 and also from equally important botanic gatherings of the 

 celebrated naturalist, Mr. Forbes, have been carried out, and the 

 preliminaries for the elaboration of the whole dicotyledonous 

 material are completed so that my work on Papuan 

 Plants, commenced in 1875, can be well continued. Also 

 for this participation in progressive science the vast col- 

 lections of plants from all parts of the globe accumulated by 

 me since 1840, and comprising now about half a million 

 sheets of specimens, will be of the greatest aid. Such 

 extensive treasures in a young colony, which far outrival 

 those in many of the largest and oldest cities, will have an 

 important bearing, perhaps through centuries, on education in 

 Australia, on healthful intellectual enjoyment of generations 



