John Bailey,
THE first Colonial Botanist of South Australia, under Colonel Gawler, at a salary of £80 per annum, which sum was afterwards retrenched by the Grey Government in 1841. Was the founder of the Nursery, now better known as "Bailey's Gardens," at Hackney, an eastern suburb of Adelaide. Mr. Bailey was born at Hackney, near London, November, 1800, and after leaving school entered the service of Messrs. Conrad Loddiges & Sons, proprietors of the most extensive Botanical Nursery in England. He remained there until 1838, when he left his native land with his family by the ship "Buckinghamshire," and arrived in Holdfast Bay, March 22, 1839. Prior to leaving he was presented by his employers with a purse of 150 sovereigns, and they also gave him several cases of plants, containing the vine, date, damson, olive, and other trees. Most of these arrived in good condition, and formed the nucleus of the large number at present found in this colony. Mr. Bailey was an indefatigable horticulturist, and introduced here more varieties of useful plants and trees than any other man of his time. He died in 1864. His second son is now the Colonial Botanist of Queensland, and the author of several highly scientific works on the flora and fauna of that colony. His eldest son resided at Gawler for many years, always occupying honorary positions in the Institute of that town, such as Committee-man, Secretary, Treasurer, and President. Mr. Bailey was contemporary with J. C. Loudon, Mr. (afterwards Sir) Joseph Paxton, and others in the botanic world.