Flora of Australia.'] INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. xxix 



That the relations between the epochs of the flowering and the fruiting of plants, and the season.? 

 of the year, are the same in Australia as elsewhere, and most remarkably so, the Orchidece being 

 spring flowers, the Leguminosm summer, the Composite autumn, and the Cryptogamia 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, Linnaeus,* and the Jussieus — 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 botanically, 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>ihe 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. 



* The real merits of Linnaeus as a founder of the Natural System have never been appreciated. In the well 

 deserved admiration of the genius and labours of the Jussieus, it is forgotten that the powers displayed by Linnaeus 

 in constructing the Genera Plantarum was not less (perhaps greater) than that exercised in grouping these into those 

 genera of a higher value, which are now called Jussieuan Orders. The history of our Natural System presents but 

 four salient points : — I. Ray's division of all plants into Phaenogams and Cryptogams, and of the former into 

 Monocotyledons and Dicotyledons. II. Linnaeus's forming natural groups called Genera, and rendering a knowledge 

 of them accessible to scientific minds by means of a binomial nomenclature and a mixed natural and artificial sys- 

 tem of Classes and Orders. III. The Jussieus' combining most of the genera of Linnaeus into truly Natural Orders, 

 under Ray's classes, which classes they divided into subclasses as artificial as many of Linnaeus's classes were. 

 IV. The separation of Gymnosperms, by Brown, which is the first step towards a natural classification of the 

 Orders of Dicotyledons. (See Lond. Journ. of Bot. and Kew Gard. iLsc. ix. 314 note.) 



