PEEFATORY NOTE. 
Having been requested by the Government of Victoria to supply, 
as speedily as possible, a collection of fibres for the Greater 
Britain and Paris Exhibitions, also to submit a descriptive list of 
the plants yielding them, giving also particulars regarding the 
methods adopted or initiated by me for preparing the samples, 
I have to state that, although a liberal sum of money was allowed 
me for the jjarpose, time Avas so much restricted that, altliough 
the collection comprises 119 distinct specimens, I regret it is not 
so extensive as I should have desired. 
While the Australasian colonies are rich in regard to indigenous 
plants that yield various fibres of a most useful character, it Avill 
be also interesting to culturists to know that both the climate 
and soil of Victoria are well adapted for successfully growing 
nearly all of the well-known fibre plants of the Old World, as 
well as those of temperate America and the Cape — or rather. 
South African colonies. The Avhole of the specimens enumerated 
in the subsequent pages (and fully described also on the labels 
attached to each in the large show-case) were obtained f[ om such 
indigenous and introduced plants as were grown in our Melbourne 
Botanic Gardens, Avhere they are used, in the various groupings,, 
for either scenic effect or for educational purposes. 
Experts in Europe, America, and elsewhere will probably 
determine the various uses to which this collection can be put; 
indeed Professor Charles Richards Dodge, special agent of the 
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington,^ and Sir Fredk, 
Abel, director of the Imperial Institute, London, have already 
commented extensively and most favorably on many of the kinds 
noAv enumerated. I have had the honour of supplying similar 
collections of fibres to many Exhibitions, notably the Centennial 
of Philadelphia, 1876 (and the preparatory one here in 187o); the 
Paris Universal, 1878 ; Melbourne International of 1880 ; that 
of Amsterdam, 1883; New Orleans, 1884-5; the Colonial and 
Indian, 1886; Jubilee International, Adelaide, 1887; Melbourne 
Centennial, 1888-9; the New Zealand Exhibition of the same 
year; and last, not least, to the Imperial Institute, London. 
W. R. GUILFOYLE, 
Director Botanic Gardens, Melbourne. 
Marcli, 1899. 
* Vide his moat intere.atin.'? volume of 861 pages, entitled Useful Fibre Plants of the World, 
published by the American Government during last year. 
A 2 
