PREFATORY AND OTHER NOTES. 9 



■desirous of obtaining information regarding the native plants from 

 the aboriginal inhabitants. The initial letters " R.B.H." indicate 

 that the aboriginal name was received from Mr. R. B. Howard, 

 the present Protector of Aborigines, and that such names have not 

 appeared previously in my publications. It appears that these 

 people have names for such plants only as they make use of. 

 The uses made of the plants by the natives will mostly be found 

 recorded in the " Queensland Flora." 



Again, an account of a country's vegetation speaks more 

 directly and truthfully to the intelligent man who is thinking of 

 leaving Europe to settle in one or other of the British possessions 

 than all the lecturers that have ever addressed a public meeting. 

 From the plants of a country one gains a good idea of climate ; the 

 plants speak the truth, they have nothing to gain or lose, and from 

 them the intending settler can easily judge if the country which he 

 desires to settle in would grow the crops which he intends to 

 cultivate or use in his trade. Let me point out just one instance, 

 say the article rubber : By casting the eye over this Catalogue it will 

 be seen that a very large number of our indigenous plants contain 

 the crude matter from which this article is made, and, as a proper 

 and careful testing of the milky sap has not been carried out, we 

 are still in the dark as to the value of our native trees for this 

 material. 



It is probable that for all time, as at present, there will 

 ibe differences of opinion as to the relative value of the words 

 " genus," " species," " variety," and " form," and, as there is no 

 positive rule to guide one in the matter, each botanist in classifying 

 his plants follows what he thinks best. Thus in the present work 

 it may be found that some of the plants are given as forms which 

 another botanist would have placed as varieties, and others as 

 varieties which by some would have been placed as species, and so 

 on. This is of little importance so long as the plants are not 

 hidden, for the main use of classification and nomenclature is to 

 make it possible to converse and write about plants in a manner 

 easily understood. To illustrate the matter let us take the well- 

 known plant Hardenbergia monophylla, the Bushman's Sarsapa- 



