BOTANICAL INFOKMATION. 317 



me, from the north, some very remarkable; and 1 have offered to describe 

 them for him before I leave, and send you the MS., if he sends me spe- 

 cimens in time. He has given me one very remarkable Eutaceous plant, 

 the stamens all united in a perfect tube, as fully so as in Meliacece. 

 He speaks of a superb Verticordia, with crimson flowers as big as half- 

 crowns \ the bush so gorgeous, that his waggoner, when he went up, used 

 to turn aside when he passed the plant, from admiration, lest he should 

 injure it, Drummond himself picked it so greedily, that, when he came 

 to sort his plunder at night, he found so much, that he made his bed of 

 what remained after he had filled his papers ! He told me of a very 

 remaikable irritable movement, which he has noticed in the hairs of 

 several annual Compodtce^ which I am to look for when they spring 

 up. As yet I have seen none of the annuals of this country, except 

 their dead stems. On my road from the Sound I walked a; good deal 

 (as we rarely travelled more than thirty miles a day), and collected what 

 I could. Very few plants, except shrubs, were in blossom, and much 

 of the country had been burnt, I gathered flowers of Hakea eucalyp- 

 toideSy of which I sent you seeds from Cape Kiehe, and now report that 

 it is one of the handsomest of the genus. The flowers are crimson, in 

 dense balls, with very long primrose-colour styles, spreading to all sides. 

 I hope Smith may raise it, and that it may blossom. The shrub itself 

 is very graceful. Mr. Sanford has got a box of Wooden Pears for you 

 (X occidentale) , and will ask you to send some to our Dublin Gardens 

 and keep a few for my museum : there are plenty for all. I have not 

 seen the tree, which he describes as being a very splendid thing when 

 in flower, and very sweet* Some of the Ilakeas are very sweet, like 

 Hawthorn, and they call them May-bushes here. II , Jlorihunda is spe- 

 cially sweet, 



Drummond Avants me to pay him a visit " over the hills," at his place ; 

 but it would occupy a fortnight, and my time is too short to spare so 

 long from my coast-work, for what would be merely a pleasure excur- 

 sion. Before T get from this Colony I shall have been eight months in 

 it, one of which will have been lost in locomotion, and another nearly 

 lost at Cape Eiche. My next location will be either at Port Faery, 

 near Portland Bay, on the Melbourne coast, or (if I can get there) Kent 

 Island, E, Brown's great Tucua locality. There is a large lighthouse 

 establishment on the island, and I hope to get sent in a Government 

 supply boat, and brought awav again by the same, on its return; but 



