by Janette Gathe - Mollie Edgecombe - Bevan Carter
 
This book contains a brief description ofthe 1801 voyage to Australia of the Investigator under the command of Matthew Flinders, a short biography of Robert Brown and over 80 beautiful photographs of Western Australian plants. During a four week stay in Albany and adjacent places on the south coast of Western Australia, Brown collected over 600 specimens of local plants, many of which still have the original name he gave them. Examples: Fringed lily Thysanotus multiflorus; Kingia australis, Bristly cottonhead Conostylis setigera, Cowslip orchard Caladenia flava, Blueberry lily Dianella revoluta, Wedge leaved dampiera Dampiera linearis, Christmas tree Nutsia floribunda, Prickly Moses Acacia pulchella, Poverty bush Eremophila alternifolia, one sided bottle brush Calothamnus quadrifidus, Scarlet runner Kennedia prostrata, Holly leaf Banksia Banksia ilicifolia, Catkin Grevillea Grevillea synapheae, Prickly Hakea Hakea amplexicaulis, Pixie Mops Petrophile linearis, Sandalwood Santalum spicatum, Reed trigger plant Stylidium junceum.
Some images are of plants named after Brown like Brunonia australis in recognition of his botanical work on Australian plants. Brown was still naming Western Australian plants after the Swan River had been colonized by the British; the genus Stirlingia was named after James Stirling the first Governor of Western Australia.