RECORDS OF AUSTRALIAN BOTANISTS. 79 
last of a trio of distinguished men who have studied Australian 
plants in Australia itself. I do not refer to the immortal Bentham 
in this connection, but the names of Robert Brown and Allan 
Cunningham are inseparably bound up with the elucidation of the 
flora of this continent. As Lord Rosebery said of Mr. Gladstone, 
who had not long passed away, ‘we are too close to the mountain 
to grasp its true proportions,’ so I would say of our late friend, 
that we cannot yet fully realise his achievements. Personally I 
place him second only to Robert Brown, the ‘Facile princeps 
botanicorum’ of Humboldt. He is the last of the botanists of 
the whole continent of Australia ; those of us who carry on his 
work are provincial botanists, confining our researches more or 
less to one State. We find the botanical work of one State 
sufficiently engrossing, and thus in botanical matters we are 
reversing the act of federation, which politically unites all our 
peoples. But our provincial arrangements are those of convenience 
only. We are all happily working to a common end. Apart 
from his intellectual greatness the industry of Mueller was pro- 
digious. The clock was never used by him as an indicator to 
cease his labours; he seemed to aim at perpetual motion, and 
now this silent monument points to rest. He was a public servant 
who did not work for his pay; a portion of this satisfied his 
modest personal requirements ; the rest was spent by him in the 
furtherance of his studies. He well advertised Australia in the 
best sense, and while I think his memory will long be green in 
his adopted country, he is afiectionately remembered in other 
parts of the world, as I can testify. Personally I owe much to 
my late master, and I have often gratefully acknowledged my 
indebtedness to him. Much of my life is spent in gardens or in 
traversing the bush for the purpose of botanical exploration. 
Though alone in my wanderings, the memory of my late friend is 
often with me; different plants remind me of Mueller’s work in 
various ways. To me the beautiful lines of Tennyson’s ‘In 
Memoriam” have a deep and special significance, as [ think of 
the great man in whose honour we are met on this beautiful 
November day :— 
