658 BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 



been, when the time arrived which compelled me to cut open 

 all my fine cases so carefully formed, made of hides, and to 

 make a scanty selection from their contents, throwing the 

 greater part away, through the utter impossibility of carrying 

 them on, four of my pack-horses having been drowned. 

 Botanical and geological specimens thus abandoned — how dis- 

 appointing ! From four to five thousand plants were thus 

 sacrificed. I, however, preserved some highly interesting 

 relics, which I shall transmit to you for determination, and 

 you may keep the duplicates and triplicates, returning, of 

 course, all uniques. I shall do the same with my Moreton 

 Bay plants, for I earnestly desire to establish a well-named 

 Herbarium in the Museum, at Sydney, in order to have the 

 means of ready comparison, and I shall exert my best endea- 

 vours to send you everything, ere long. 



You will, of course, know whether any botanist has it in 

 view the completion of that noble Torso, thus to speak, of 

 R. Brown's New Holland Flora ; if not, it might be worth 

 your while to collect materials, and set to work. I heard that 

 Dr. Joseph Hooker, son of Sir Wm. Hooker, projects such 

 a work ;* and if so, I am sure you will assist him with all the 

 means which I shall place in your hands. 



My first thought on returning to Sydney, was to write and 

 request you to come here ; but I was not quite sure where a 

 letter might find you, and I also feared the time was too 

 short to enable you to arrive before I should be obliged to 

 start. Another consideration was, that I did not then know 

 how much money I could put at your disposal. After mature 

 reflexion, I think the best plan will be for you to remain 

 where you are, and to work upon an Herbarium for 

 Sydney. 



I hope my next expedition will be a famous one for botany. 

 It is my intention to skirt the Gulf of Carpentaria again, at 

 the head of its waters, perhaps two hundred and fifty or three 

 hundred miles from the sea-coast, and thence proceeding 



* The " Flora Tamanica" is what must have been here alluded to. 

 —Ed. 



