OUTLINE OF THE PROGRESS OF PHYCOLOGY IN 
AUSTRALIA. 
Australian Seaweeds were first made known in Europe by small collec- 
tions brought home by the naturalists of the early French and English 
■exploring expeditions. Thus a few species were described by Labillardiere 
and by Robert Brown early in the Nineteenth Century. From 1840 to 
1850 considerable additions were made. Ludwig Preiss resided in Western 
Australia from 1838 to 1842, and his marine material was worked up by 
Dr. Wilhelm Sonder, of Hamburg. Ronald Gunn made extensive collec- 
tions in Tasmania, and his plants were described by Dr. A illiam II. 
Harvey (Professor of Botany in Trinity College, Dublin) in J. D. Hooker’s 
“Flora of Tasmania,” published in 1860, in which Harvey gave excellent 
coloured plates of several species. Harvey had also published several forms, 
with illustrations, in his “Nereis Australis,” 1847. In 1854-55 he himself 
visited Ceylon, Australia from Fremantle to Sydney, Tasmania, New 
Zealand, Fiji, and the Friendly Islands, for the purpose of investigating 
the algae of those countries. He collected enthusiastically, and was able, 
on his return, to distribute many sets of mounted weeds from Ceylon, 
Australia, and the Friendly Islands, those from each country separately. 
The Australian set comprised nearly 600 species. From 1858 to 1862 he 
brought out in five volumes his magnificent “Phycologia Australica, 
giving descriptions of Australian Algae and 300 coloured plates of the 
greatest scientific and artistic value. Local collectors gave him assistance 
by forwarding parcels of seaweeds to Dublin; notably George Clifton from 
Western Australia ; from Victoria, Henry Watts (Warrnambool), S. Hanna- 
t'ord (Port Phillip Heads), and Mrs. Barker from Cape Sohank; Rev. John 
and Mrs. Fereday from the Tamar, in Tasmania. In 1870 again, Bonder 
published his “Algen Tropischen Australiens, ” describing, in some cases 
with coloured figures, the algae sent to him by Daemel from Cape 4 ork, 
and by Kilner from Port Denison, Queensland. Baron von Mueller paid 
attention to sea plants, as well as to land plants, and issued sets of ‘ ‘ Algae 
Muellerianae. ’ ’ He did not himself describe the species but sent the plants 
to Sonder, and, after Sonder ’s death, to J. G. Agardh, of Lund, Sweden. 
Agardh was the doyen of the Phycologists of Europe during the latter 
half of the Nineteenth Century. Mueller made his personal collections 
first on the Lefevre Peninsula, near Port Adelaide, and later in 
Victorian waters. He also enlisted volunteer collectors in other parts of 
Australia. During the last two decades of the century, J. Bracebridge 
Wilson, Head Master of the Geelong Grammar School, spent his holidays 
in dredging Victorian seaweeds and sponges in the neighbourhood of Port 
Phillip Heads and in Western Port. The Algae he sent to Agardh for 
determination, and among them were several which the latter described as 
new species. Wilson published, in the Proceedings of the Royal Society 
national herbarium of victoria 
