100 . 
Botanists and their Work. 
S.A* NAT., VOL. XV. 
June 12th, 1934. 
fact that the Flora Australiensis cost the Australian Governments 
dear; their contributions towards its publication were so meagre 
that when the expenses of printing had been met, there remained 
for Bentham a remuneration at the rate of about £80 a year for 
15 years of scientific labor. It seems incredible, but it is the 
estimate arrived at by Mr. B. S. Roach in a paper which he read 
to us a few years ago, and I believe it is quite corrects Fortun¬ 
ately Bentham was a man of independent means and his botanic¬ 
al work was a labor of love. 
It would be impossible for me, without taking up too much 
time and wearying you too sorely, to do justice to the many other 
botanists who have worked on South Australian plants-. We have 
not been visited by so many learned Europeon investigators as 
the other States—Sieber in New South Wales, Domin In Queens¬ 
land, Pieiss, Diels, Pritzel and Ostenfeld in West Australia— 
but resident botanists have helped to elucidate our flora. The 
late J. H. Maiden, Government Botanist of New South Wales, 
an enthusiastic worker and a very lovable personality, specialised 
in Eucalypts and Acacias and visited our State more than once 
in connection with his researches. We have had amongst us 
for many years the leading Australian authority on Orchids— 
Dr. R. S. Rogers—and Mr. E. FI. Ising, recently your chairman, 
has been a diligent collector of plants in all parts of the State 
and has also described several new species. In the Far North 
and the Far North-West, Professor J. B. Cleland and Messrs. 
H. li. Finlayson and N, B. Tindale have recently made very 
interesting notes and collections. 
You will tell me .perhaps, that I have said very little about 
the lives of botanists. Well—“happy is the nation which has 
no history*’ and perhaps this saving may be applied to individ¬ 
uals. It is true that some botanists have perished in “moving 
accidents by flood and field,” especially in unhealthy tropical 
climates. While collecting plants in the Interior of New South 
Wales in 1835, Richard Cunningham, brother of the Sydney 
botanist, Allan Cunningham, was speared to death by the natives. 
There is the story of Robert Brown, or some other early botan¬ 
ist, who was gathering a fine specimen on the Gulf of Carpentaria, 
when a spear whizzed past his ear. Fie ran a race with several 
other spears on <his way back to the boat, but he brought the 
plant along with him. But generally speaking, botanists appear 
to have led very peaceful and uneventful lives—“along the cool 
sequestered vale of life they kept the even tenor of their way/' 
