A reprint of a classical work in the Cambridge Library Collection
George Bentham (1800-84) was one of Britain's most influential botanists, whose own collection of plant specimens numbered more than 100,000. Although he donated his herbarium to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in 1854, he continued to make significant contributions to the field, including this exhaustive, seven-volume work detailing the plant life of Australia, which was published from 1863 to 1878. It was part of a series of works commissioned by the British government to document the flora in its colonies. Using the extensive numbers of specimens at Kew - and with the help of Ferdinand Mueller (1825-96), a German botanist in Australia - Bentham was able to compile descriptions of more than 8,000 species of Australian plants, making these volumes the first completed compendium of the flora of any large continental area.
Volume 6, published in 1873, describes 20 orders of flora in the classes dicotyledon and monocotyledon.
Conspectus of the orders
Order CV. Thymeleae
Order CVI. Elaeagnaceae
Order CVII. Nepenthaceae
Order CVIII. Euphorbiaceae
Order CIX. Urticeae
Order CX. Casuarineae
Order CXI. Piperaceae
Order CXII. Aristolochiaceae
Order CXIII. Cupuliferae
Order CXIV. Santalaceae
Order CXV. Balanophoreae
Order CXVI. Coniferae
Order CXVII. Cycadeae
Monocotyledons
Order CXVIII. Hydrocharideae
Order CXIX. Scitamineae
Order CXX. Orchideae
Order CXXI. Burmanniaceae
Order CXXII. Irideae
Order CXXIII. Amaryllideae
Order CXXIV. Taccaceae
Order CXXV. Dioscorideae
Index