PREFACE. 



This -work is mainly designed to encourage junior students to take a general 

 interest in the vegetable beings living in this iState. In pursuit of this end 

 technicalities have been reduced, descriptions and general information have been 

 abbreviated, and economy has been studied in every part. 



The system adopted is that of Hooker and Bentham, the one that is at 

 present in use in most English-speaking oommunities. Many efforts have been 

 made in recent years to improve on this. The late Baeon von Muellee designed 

 a system that is at present used largely in Victoria, and partially in New South 

 Wales and South Australia, but it is doubtful if any extensive change will be 

 made until a scheme is presented containing such radical improvements that a 

 prospect of reasonable permanence may be foreseen. 



The main objection to Hooker and Bbntham's system is that it contains a 

 section — the Monochlamydese or Incomplete — that really is a sort of dumping- 

 ground for all forms -that have no relations elsewhere. This, of course, is not as 

 it should be. Here we have primitive forms that have not yet acquired the 

 typical Dicotyledonous form classified with plants of a reduced character that once 

 possessed that form and have evolved away from it. , But the state of afiairs is 

 not improved by distributing the Incompletes haphazard amongst the rest. 

 Students should always bear in mind that not only are the great groups of 

 plants descended from types long since lost, but the smaller groups and Natural 

 Orders are seldoin related in direct descent, and therefore any system that 

 undertakes to classify plants in linear succession must necessarily be arbitrary, 

 and almost entirely erroneous. Muellbb's arrangement, and a more recent 

 system by De. Warming, of Copenhagen, will be found in the Appendix. 



Plants, other than grasses, that have established themselves since Tasmania 

 has been settled have only in few instances received the attention of natives, 

 but are placed in an indented position. Had convenience permitted, their 

 descriptions would have appeared in smaller type. 



The Plates must not be looked upon as the work of the Printing Department ; 

 they are faithful copies of the author's drawings. Had the departmental artists 

 been permitted to idealise them some departure from a faithful copy of nature 

 must have resulted, besides which increased cost would have necessitated a 

 considerable decrease in number, which may have been the reverse of desirable. 



