CONCLUDING PREFACE.
IN bringing the present work to a close it had been my intention, as announced in the Preface to the first volume, to have supplemented it with an account of the species added to the Australian Flora during its progress, and a detailed examination of the relations as well of the whole flora to that of other countries, as of its component parts to each other. I now, however, find that this would entail more labour than at my age it would be prudent to undertake. The additional species have, moreover, been described by Baron von Mueller in his Fragmenta; and it is to be hoped that, in order to render these descriptions readily accessible to those who have to make use of my Flora, he will consolidate them into a methodical synopsis in conformity with the system I have adopted. This would give him the opportunity of re-arranging my genera with reformed characters in those cases where his views have proved to be at variance with mine. With regard to Geographical Distribution, I can only repeat that recent discoveries and the additional data collected have generally confirmed the principles laid down by J. D. Hooker in the admirable Essay prefixed to his 'Flora Tasmaniæ,' and that it is only in minor details that corrections or additions have now to be made to it. These I am compelled to leave in other hands; but it may be useful on the present occasion to recapitulate shortly the general characteristics of the chief component parts of the present Flora of Australia (including Tasmania).
- The predominant portion appears to be strictly indigenous. Not-withstanding an evident though very remote ordinal tribual or
