West Park and Kew , 1841-1865. Ixxxiii 
which is interesting as giving the views of the two best 
informed botanists in Europe as to the number of species 
of flowering plants and ferns natives of the several colonies, 
specimens of which were assumed to be available in herbaria 
for description at that time. 
Estimated numbers of species to be described 
Australian Colonies, 8,000 
South Africa, 10,000 
British North America, 2,000 
West Indies, 2,000 
New Zealand, 1,200 
Ceylon, 3.000 
Hong Kong, 
1,000 
Mauritius & Seychelles, 
, 1,000 
British Guiana, 
2,000 
Honduras, 
I, 5 °° 
West Africa, 
2,000 
British India, 
12,000 
Of these colonies the Flora of one only had, previous to 
the appeal to the Secretary of State, been completed on 
the plan proposed ; that of Hong Kong, by Bentham in 
1861. Three others were in progress, and have since been 
completed ; the ‘ Flora of the British West Indies 5 by Grise- 
bach, 1859-64 ; the ‘ Handbook of the Flora of New Zealand, 5 
1864-7, which includes all the known Cryptogams of the 
island up to date ; and the ‘ Flora Australiensis 5 of Bentham, 
commenced in 1863 and concluded in seven volumes in 1878. 
One other Flora was in progress, and is not yet completed ; 
the c Flora Capensis ’ of Harvey and Sonder, of which three 
volumes were published between 1859 an d 1865. All the above 
works were subsidized by the home or colonial Governments. 
The number of volumes required was estimated to be 
forty- three ; the author’s remuneration to be £150 per volume, 
payable at date of publication. The price proposed was 
£1 per volume containing not fewer than 500 species. To 
insure the publisher against loss, 100 copies were to be taken 
by Government on the day of publication. The authors were 
to have no pecuniary interest in the sales of the volumes. 
The Floras were to be limited to flowering plants, ferns, 
and their allies, and to be written in English. 
Of the botanical works published by my father during the 
twenty-four years of his Directorship of Kew, the more 
