450 NOTICES OF BOOKS, 
Journal of an Expedition into the interior of TROPICAL AUSTRA- 
LIA, in search of the Gulf of Carpentaria; by Lr. Cor. Sır 
Tuomas L. Mrromerx, Kr. D. C. L. Surveyor General of 
New South Wales. 1 vol. London, 1848. 
There is in this volume a valuable contribution to Australian 
Botany, given in such a way as not to trouble the reader 
of the more popular “Journal” with the dry details of 
Natural History. During the important survey a very consider- 
able collection of plants was made by Sir Thomas Mitchell and 
his assistants. They were all numbered according to the locality, 
and correspondmg numbers were kept in the Journal. The speci- 
mens, previous to the appearance of the volume of travels, were 
consigned to Messrs. Bentham, Hooker, Lindley, and De Vriese ; 
and such as were deemed new, or otherwise worthy of notice, 
were named and characterized in a brief phrase, of which the 
generic name alone appears in the body of tlfe work, while the 
specific name and character and any short remark to assist in the 
identity are given in a note, which may be passed over or not, as 
the reader thinks proper. Then at the end of the volume is an 
Index of all the plants noticed in the work, arranged according 
to the natural orders, with a reference to the page of the work. 
One of the most remarkable plants here described is a new 
Sterculiaceous Genus, Delabechea rupestris, Lindl., of which a 
figure is given. Its trunk bulges out like a barrel; or rather, 
judging from the figure, it is shaped like a turnip, with the branches 
springing directly from the top, yet it constitutes a tree, “arbor 
grandis, trunco in dolii speciem intumescente.” 
While many of the plants in this collection prove to be undeseribed 
species, it is but justice to the late Mr. Allan Cunningham to 
say that a large portion of them exist in his collection, which, it 
is to be regretted, he did not live to publish. 
Although scarcely bearing on botany, except as exhibiting vege- 
tation en masse, we cannot help expressing our satisfaction at the 
beautiful execution of the views of landscape scenery. 
