Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Iconography of Australian Species of Acacia and Cognate Genera
Through the liberality of the Victorian Government it became possible, to prepare in the Phytologic Department of Melbourne successively several volumes, illustrative of some portions of the Australian Flora. Thus in earlier years appeared a Series of lithograms in elucidation mainly of orders and genera of Victorian plants; in later years an almost complete iconography of the Eucalypts of Australia became elaborated, and this was followed quite recently by an Atlas of Myoporinous plants. In a desire of continuing these pictorial issues it was deemed best, to devote the next volume to those native species of Acacia, of which hitherto no drawings had appeared anywhere. As the genus Acacia is by far the largest in the Flora of this part of the globe, numbering more than 300 well-marked specific forms, hardly one-third of them hitherto illustrated anywhere, much difficulty was experienced by horticulturists and artisans, here as well as abroad, to identify with systematic accuracy any particular kinds of these plants, either cultivated for ornamental purposes or drawn' into use for technic objects, so that a work like the present one seemed specially called for. Moreover it appeared likely, that by offering additional means for naming any of the numerous Acacias of ours now known, they might become restored in European Conservatories to that favor, which they enjoyed so much in the earlier part of this century, when they were largely reared as the first harbingers of the spring, and were the objects of much admiration and delight for the profuseness of their ?owering or for the oddity of their fantastic foliage. Since then various of the arborescent Acacias of Australia have attracted forestral attention very widely also in countries with mild climes on account of the celerity of their growth, or the technic importance of their wood, or the great value of their bark for the tanning industry, or the copious yield' of mimosa-gum, so that this vast genus of plants is now surrounded by a multifarious practical interest, alien to it when but comparatively few of the species were known and the significance of many _for technology remained unascertained. Indeed it may be readily foreseen, thatgained through contributions of botanic amateurs mostly inspired by 'myself, and as partly obtained through departmental emissaries, many of whom have long since passed away from their earthly career. The original drawings'for this work as well as their\ lithographic delineations emanated from the skilled talent of Mr. Robert Graff, and demonstrate patient perseverance as well as artistic accomplishment. In the selection of the specimens for the plates and _in the revision of the latter I had the able aid of Mr. George Luehmann, Assistant in my Establishment. No plant has been admitted into these pages, of. Which the material for detail-analysis was not fully extant, a principle adhered to also in all the former illustrated publications of the author. Thus many a species, as yet incompletely known, can by these decades be brought under notice only in supplements, when - as time passes on - through facilitated traffic and extended settlements also the remoter homes of many of the rarer Acacias shall have come within easier reach. A work of this kind ought to have some bearing on our educational efforts likewise, as b; its dispersion through the Australian dominions, not merely as patterns for drawing or as text for some phytologic glossology, but also as easy means for directing pleasurably the attention of residents all over Australia to some of the leading features of the floral world near them, and this perhaps far through the next century, when our rich-blooming or curious or fragrant Acacias, while they have become widely naturalized elsewhere, will no longer extend in their gayness and loveliness over all the vast pristine spaces occupied by them now!
