í 
BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 485 
to my recollection Mr. Douglas’s graphic description of 
the immense crater of Mouna Roa in the Sandwich Islands. 
How many ages must have passed away since the Mauritian 
Valley was filled with boiling lava! 
G. GARDNER. 
Extract of a Letter from RowALD Gunn, Eso. Van 
Diemen’s Land. 
During February, 1843, I had occasion to ascend the 
Western Mountains of this Island, and go over the same 
ground as that described by Mr. R. W. Laurence in his Ex- 
cursion, published in Vor. 1. of your Botanical Journal, 
page 235, and as I may clear up some of the points men- 
tioned in it, I at once do so. I believe I am rather a better 
walker than my old friend, as I find I accomplished in one 
day what took him three. 
Under Jan. 17.—His “ Mountain Bird" is Coronica fulig- 
inosa, trailing Exocarpus is E. humifusa. Creeping aphyllous 
shrub is Bossiea ensata, var., my 1059, or a new sp. allied 
to it, but I can detect no difference. 
Under Jan. 18.—The Veronica is my no. 269; common 
also on Mount Wellington. 
Under Jan. 19.—' Two of the three lakes seen by Mr. 
Laurence are not * Arthur's Lakes," but very small ones, 
indeed still unnamed. He did not see the most western 
Arthur's Lake (there are two) which is a very large sheet of 
Water. 
Under Jan. 20.— It is Cider, not Cedar, tree, mentioned by 
Mr. Laurence. 
My ramble over the same country yielded me a richer har- 
Vest, although at an unfavourable season and when I had other 
üsiness on hand; since I was looking out for a summer sheep- 
Walk in that elevated region, and for which it is well suited 
from its vicinity to Formosa. Arthur’s Lakes are 3,388 feet 
ve the level of the sea, and the country towards the 
