THE BANKSIAN BOTANIST-LIBRARIANS. 
I I I 
He writes again, 2nd June, 1809,* a further progress report: — 
The number of plants described is 1,600, of which nearly 1,300 are as yet un- 
juiblished ; and these comprehend upwards of 100 genera consider’d as new. 
•Mr. Bauer has finished 119 drawings. He reports that he has made some 
progress in preparing a Prodromus. 
Brown makes a further progress report,f to Banks, dated 6th 
January, 1810. 
The number of species of plants is not absolutely ascertain’d, but may be 
reckon’d 3,400, of which about 2,800 have been arrang’d and specimen? selected 
for the public collection ; of these nearly 2,200 are described ; of this latter number, 
u[)wards of 1,700 are new species and comprehend 140 new genera. 
Instead of making his Prodromus refer to new genera and species 
only, he stated that he had decided to include all New Holland plants. 
Mr. Bauer had made 145 finished drawings. The total number 
of his sketches of New Holland plants is 1,542, and animals is 263. 
Of Norfolk Island there are 80 sketches of plants and 40 of animals. 
Of Timor plants, 60 ; and Cape of Good Hope, 79. 
The portion of the Prodromus referred to was an accomplished 
fact the same year, when he published the “ Prodromus Florse Novae 
Hollandiic.” and another contribution in 1814, as the Appendix to 
Captain Pdinders’ Voyage : — 
The first of these works, though a fragment, has for half a century maintained 
its reputation unimpugned, of being the greatest botanical work that has ever 
appeared. I 
Speaking of Brown’s Australian voyages, HookerJ says : — 
Owing to the late Robert Brown having accompanied tliis voyage, it proved, 
as far as botany is concerned, the most important in its results ev’er undertaken, 
and hence marks an epoch in the history of that science. Brown united a 
thorougli knowledge of the botany of his day, with excellent j)Owers of observation, 
consummate sagacity, an unerring memory, and indefatigable zeal and industry 
as a collector and investigator; he had further the advantage of being accom- 
panied by a botanical draughtsman, Ferdinand Bauer, who j)roved no less dis- 
tinguished as a microscopic observer than as an artist; and he had a gardener, 
.Mr. Peter (iood, to assist in the manual operations of collecting and preserving. 
Hence, when we regard the interest and novelty of the field of research, the rare 
combination of ciualities in the botanist, and the advantages and facilities which 
he enjoyed, we can easily understand why the botanical results should have been 
so incom])arably greater, not merely than those of any j)revious voyage, but than 
those of all sitnilar voyages put together. 
The last sentence is strong language, but its truth has never been 
disputed. 
The following correspondence of Brown at this period, hitherto 
unpublished, and for which I am indebted to Mr. F. M. Bladen, the 
Official Historian of New South Wales, contains much that is of 
interest to botanists, and especially to Australian ones. 
• Hist. Rec.. vii, 160. 
t Ib., 262. 
f " Introiluctory Essay to the Flora of Tasmania,” p. cxiv. 
