11 
Zealand Flora into nineteen specific forms. That through want of extensive field studies 
untenable limits are assigned to a vast number of supposed specific forms admits of no 
doubt whatever, and it is equally evident that the vain attempt to draw lines of specific 
demarcation between mere varieties or races, hitherto not sufficiently understood in their 
relation to allied forms of organic life, has largely tended to suggest the theory of transmu- 
tation, a doctrine against which in the treatise under consideration I have expressed though 
cursory still unequivocally a dissenting opinion. Of the second volume of Victorian plants, 
the greater portion descriptive of the order of Leguminosae has been printed. But the 
continuation of this work, commenced on a more comprehensive scale than almost any 
other existing of a kindred tendency, has for a while been suspended, with a view of 
giving precedence to a more concise publication, brought out under the aid of our 
botanical office, by Mr. G. Bentham, the President of the Linnean Society. The 
expressions of opinions given by this great phytographer in the issue of this work 
cannot be otherwise than of advantage in the elaboration of the future volumes to be 
devoted to the “ plants of Victoria." For the two volumes hitherto written, and the third 
under preparation, on the universal vegetation of Australia, comprising all Thalamiflorse and 
with exception of Composite all Calyciflorse hitherto found in Australia, 468 fascicles of 
plants from the Melbourne Botanical Museum have successively been foi warded for tem- 
porary perusal and consultation to Kew. For the concluding portion of the third volume 
61 fascicles of Composite are prepared. On reference to Mr. Bentham s work, it will be 
observed that the united material, which in Australia through my researches since 1847 
was brought together, is larger than the collections which since the time of Sir Jos. Banks s 
voyage with Capt. Cook accumulated in Britain, if mine deposited there are subtracted. 
Seizing on every opportunity which presents itself to add to our store of prepared plants, and 
maintaining continually one collector in the field, I am almost constantly augmenting the 
riches of our collections. The whole herbarium of this establishment may be estimated as 
comprising about 286,000 specimens ; the number of extra-Australian individual plants 
exceeds somewhat those of the Australian portion. Both divisions are kept separate, for 
the sake of affording increased facility for working with the Australian specimens. How 
far the formation and elucidation of these collections have already exercised an influence 
on the process of rendering descriptively known the plants of the Australian continent 
may be learned, in a retrospective view, from the exposition annexed, accoiding to which, 
by my local researches, more than 300 genera either not indicated before or specifically 
not elucidated, were for the first time introduced into the systematic arrangement of 
the vegetation of this great part of the globe; 95 of these represent generic types novel to 
science. 
Genera not previously known among described Australian plants : Caltha, 
Myosurus, Tetracera, Stephania, Drimys, Sisymbrium (Blennodia), Capsella, Turntis, 
Busbeckia, Polygala, Xanthophyllum, Hugonia, Scolopia, Brackenridgea, Adansonia, He- 
licteres, Melochia, Riedleya, Melhania, Waltheria, Corchorus, Triumfetta, Grewia, Sloanea, 
Abelmoschus, Gossypium, Pavonia, Urena, Lagunaria, Bergia, Xanthoxvlon, Euodia, 
Melicope, Ryssopterys, Atalaya, Ratonia, Harpullia, Nephelium, Cardiospermum, Ail- 
antus, Turrtea, Ximenia, Villaresia, Byronia, Erytbroxylon, Sagina, Polycarpaea, Glinus, 
Mollugo, Triantliema, Aizoon, Sesuvium, Tetragonia, Hippocratea, Gouania, Celastrus, 
Euonymus, Canarium, Rhus, Parinarium, Homalium, Zizyplius, Melanthesa, Balogliia, 
Mallotus (Rottlera), Macaranga (Mappa), Bridelia, Acalypha, Tragia, Hemicyclia, 
Andrackne, Exccecaria, Aleurites, Ceratophyllum, Weinmannia, Geissois, Donatia, Aigo- 
phyllum, Jussiaea, Ludwigia, Ammannia, Ameletia, Ceriops, Bryoniopsis, Muckia, Lagunaria, 
Trichosanthes, Luffa, Zehneria, Memecylon, Metrosideros, Syzygium, Oathartocarpus, 
Calpurnia, Westonia, Adenanthera, Agati, Sesbania, ^Escliynomene, Lourea, Gajanus, 
Rhynchosia, Tephrosia, Erythrophlaeum, Pterolobium, Yiscum, Rhytidandra, Paratropia, 
Seseli, Pozoa, Crantzia, Ligusticum (Gingidium), Guettarda, Polyphragmon, Gardenia, 
No. 72— b, 2. 
