BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 167 
Swan River Botany. 
Many of our friends, as well as ourselves, have felt great 
anxiety respecting the fate of those valuable collections of 
plants and seeds, which it was at length ascertained had been 
embarked by Mr. Drummond, at the Swan River, in the 
month of May last, on board the “ Shepherd,” bound for 
London. On application to the gentlemen, Messrs. Sewel, 
Norman and Sewel, to whom this vessel is consigned, they 
assure us that news has been received of her arrival in China, 
where she had to take in a cargo, and whence she would 
proceed direct to England, In the meanwhile, we are sure 
our readers will peruse with interest the following extracts 
from letters which have lately come from Mr. Drummond, 
much in them bearing on those plants which will be found in 
the collections now daily expected. 
Perth, Western Australia, 
May 10th, 1842. 
_ “Ihave just shipped, on board the ‘Shepherd, bound 
fr London, two large boxes, containing about 15,000 dried 
Specimens of Swan River, and sent some account of them in 
two long letters, which I despatched about a fortnight since.* 
ere are collections of native seeds in these boxes, destined 
for the Royal Gardens at Kew, and for Baron Hugel. -In 
gathering these seeds, I have aimed to procure chiefly those 
of ornamenta] shrubs and plants, which you will see by the 
, € Specimens which accompany them, as the fine Banksias, 
Dryandr, as, Verticordias of this country. Among the seeds 
are Some papers containing roots of mixed sorts of Droseras, 
Which, from the state in which they now are, I perceive 
ud have vegetated successfully if I had had the oppor- 
tunity of shipping them direct for London four months ago, 
75 Several are now in flower, though they have lain in dry 
‘Sand for the last half year. The specific name of bulbosa is 
* See vol, 1 of this Journal, p. 626. 
