has arrived for a more detailed account of the botanical 

 literature of these expeditious and of the botanists who 

 undertook the work of determination and description of the 

 plants. It is a duty we owe to French botanists to recall 

 their labours, while the practical utility of such information 

 requires no emphasis in a company of scientific men. 



It will be seen that some of the most brilliant botanists 

 of France have been engaged in the work of the elucidation 

 of the Australian flora, and this remark would be even more 

 true if I had attempted to enumerate the whole of our 

 obligations to French botanists. 



For various reasons the whole of the collections brought 

 home by the French expeditions were not fully examined, 

 and it is hoped that, at some convenient time, these remain- 

 ing specimens will be dealt with by the compatriots of 

 those who often endangered their lives to procure them. 



The Australian flora has been elaborated by many 

 botanists 1 of various nations, and I will endeavour, on some 

 future occasion, to give some account of our indebtedness 

 to those other than French and British. 



0. 1785-8. '« Boussole ' and "Astrolabe,' commanded by 

 J. F. G. de la Perouse. 



This expedition started from France in June 1785, not 

 directly destined for New South Wales, while Governor 

 Phillip and his expedition left England nearly two years 

 later, viz., 13th May, 1787. Governor Phillip arrived in 



1 See also my (1) "Records of Australian botanists" (a. General, b. 

 New South Wales), this Journ., xlii, 60 ; (2) Notes on South Australian 

 botaDists in Journ. Aust. Assoc. Adv. Set, Adelaide Meeting, 1907; (3) 

 " Records of Victorian botanists," Vic. Nat., xxv, 101 ; (4) " Records of 

 Tasmanian botanists," Journ. Roy. Soc. Tas., 1909; (5) "Records of 

 Western Australian botanists," Journ. W. A.Nat. Hist. Soc, 1909; (6) 

 " Records of Queensland botanists," Journ. Aust. Assoc. Adv. Sci., Brisbane 

 Meeting, 1909. 





