50 NORTH AUSTRALIAN EXPL0U1^'G EXPEDITION. 



Should the botanical. results to be gained during this journey be but 

 proportionately small, which is very possible, considering the nature of 

 the Expedition, and the probable absence of high ranges in Central 

 Australia, I shall then not apply for leave of absence to return to 

 England, but shall rather continue my labours in some part of Aus- 

 tralia, provided the Colonial Government will again supply limited 

 subsidia for that purpose. But if the ¥lora of the interior should 

 prove so rich as to answer to my sanguine expectations, and if the 

 means of transport will admit of my collecting all the species occurring 

 there, and above all, if Providence grants me life and health for this 

 work, then I shall be greatly cheered in my home journey to Europe 

 by the anticipation of the pleasure of paying you personally my respects, 

 and gaining so much information at your magnificent establishment. 



Since I wrote this letter the gentlemen of the schooner landed, under 

 Mr. Gregory, at Quail Island, where a few plants were obtained. 



They 



if ex n 



tus sp., Ficus sp., Folycarpcea sp., Rottlera sp., Jasminum dwaricatumy 

 Caasytha sp., Tacca pinriatijiday Menhpermum sp.?, a beautiful broad- 

 leaved LorantlmSy a prostrate Sida with very short pedicels, and what 

 I consider to be a new genus of Clirymlalaneae {Basistylis). There ap- 

 pears also to be at that place, to judge from a few fragments, a new 

 genus of PolygonecB^ but I am quite uncertain, having seen neither 

 leaves nor fruit. In the box with specimens forwarded to the Eight 

 Honourable the Secretary of State for the Colonies you will find a 

 Cucurbitaceous plant, named Sicyos Ciinninghami ; since then I had 

 time to analyze it, and observed it to belong, together with a second 

 species, to the genus Zehneria, Neither of them agrees exactly with 

 the general character in Endlicher's genus, and I have ventured conse- 

 quently to describe both as distinct from the Norfolk Island plants. 

 The other manuscripts are already packed up, so that I extract the 

 diagnosis, in case you would be inclined to give them publication with 

 the rest. 



Zehneria CuimmgJiamii (Sicyos sp., Cumihiyh. MS. T) ; ramis graci- 

 libus, foliis indivisis deltoideo- vel sagittato-hastatis acuminatis I'c- 

 pandis denticulatis mucronulatis, floribus monoicis utriusque sexus 

 in axi saepissime geminato conjuncto longe setaceo-pedunculatis, 

 masculis triandris, fcemineis stamina sterilia producentibus, stigmatis 



