186 



BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 



Mr. Swainson's Botanical Eeport, principally relating to the 



Buealypti and Camarhm of Victoria, New Holland. 



It" has been a real pleasure to us to lay before our readers (see p. 123) 

 the able Eeport of tlie Government Botanist of the Colony, Dr. Miiller, 

 on the vegetation of Victoria. The late Lieutenant-Governor, Mr. La- 

 trobe, in his great desire to promote the cause of botany, appointed also 

 another naturalist, W. Swainson, Esq., well known as a distinguished 

 zoologist and most able draughtsman, to study and report on the tim- 

 ber of the colony, chiefly Eucalypti and Casuarin<e. By favour of his 

 Grace the Duke of :Nrewcastle, the Eeport is now before us, and it is as 

 brief as it is startling in some of its statements. It is as follows (ad- 

 dressed to the Lieutenant-Governor) : 



"Tirhatuan, Snd October, 1853. 



"Sir, — I do myself the honour of laying before your Excellency, 



in the enclosed papers, the result of my botanical investigations in this 

 province. 



" My chief attention,, for the first five months after being located 

 here, was directed to the family of Eucalyptidce , or Gum-trees, among 

 which I have discovered five distinct and well-marked genera, hitherto 

 unknown as such, and apparently peculiar to Victoria ; together with 

 two other new genera, which occur also in the adjacent province. 



"Having had no accommodation for arranging the different species 

 for comparison, etc., I have been necessitated to pack them up as fast 

 as collected. It is quite impossible therefore for me to state, with any 

 degree of certainty, the number of new species contained in the above 

 genera. The packets of dried specimens, seeds, and capsules, will be 

 seen to form a grand total of 1520. I am therefore disposed tc 

 that even if two-thirds may hereafter prove varieties only, there will yet 

 remain more than 500 species, botanically distinct, only two or three of 



think 



Wi 



(C 



My researches, in respect to timber-trees (from causes already well 



um 



known), have been quite unsuccessful. 

 La.*) and the straight Stringy Bark {Tncanthus, La.) are the only ge- 

 nera I have found whose wood is useful either for sawing or splitting. 

 Specimens of the former (of an unknown species) have been procured 

 and sent to the curator. The latter, of which there are numberless 



^ LatrobeP— Ed. 



