44 
Federation. Bailey’s great work, the “Queensland 
Flora,” the six volumes of which were published from 
1899 to 1902, remains the standard reference on the sub- 
ject, At the beginning of the twentieth century this 
Grand Old Man of Queensland botany was the central 
l’igme of an enthusiastic baud of amateur botanists and 
other naturalists. He was 78 years of age when C. T. 
White joined his staff. The young botanist's duties were 
many sided. At first they included the copying of let- 
ters for his grandfather, the collecting and despatch of 
plants of all descriptions, from algae to flowering plants, 
to overseas specialists, and the drawing of almost a 
thousand sketches for Bailey’s Comprehensive Catalogue 
of Queensland Plants which was published in 1909. Mr. 
White once told me of the great pleasure he had in those 
days when any mail from Europe might contain descrip- 
tions of new species that he had collected, and when any 
of his collections of the lower plants were almost certain 
to contain numbers of new records for Queensland. It 
was an excellent Gaining for the day when he was to 
occupy the official position that his grandfather had held 
and the same unofficial position of leader of the botanical 
naturalists of his State. 
In 1915 F. M. Bailey died and was succeeded by his 
son, John Frederick Bailey, who since 1905 had been the 
Curator of the Brisbane Botanic Gardens. J. F. Bailey 
retained the two positions of Government Botanist and 
Curator of the Gardens, bill his interests were more 
with horticulture and forestry. Two years later he went 
to Adelaide as Director of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens. 
His two sons, F. M. Bailey of the New South Wales 
Forest Service and J. R. Bailey, Curator of the Brisbane 
Botanic Gardens, carried on the family botanical tradi- 
tion, Mr. C. T. White was appointed Acting Govern- 
ment Botanist when his uncle resigned, and in 1918 was 
appointed to the full position, which he held until his 
death. He already had a reputation not only in Queens- 
land but in the other States. In 1918 he accepted the 
invitation of Sir Hubert, Murray, the Lieutenant-Governor 
of Papua, to visit the territory of Papua, and the results 
of the trip were published as his first long paper in the 
Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland for 
1919. This was the starting point for active work in 
