BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 405 
respect. By the Halifax, as I lately informed you, I despatched a 
box: perhaps you have heard of the disaster that befell this vessel; 
she was driven on shore soon after sailing, and so much injured that it 
was found necessary to put back for repairs. I trust that nothing 
worse than delay has happened, and that the articles will yet arrive 
in good order. 
Herewith I send some slices of several subterranean Fungi, which, 
uninviting as they look to an epicure, are highly esteemed by our fun- 
givorous animals, whose scraping has led me to detect their concealed 
habitat. 
Soon after the date of my last letter, an event iud which 
plunged us all in the deepest affliction, and took me quite off my usual 
pursuits. My youngest son was murdered by a native, who speared 
him through the body as he lay asleep, at the Sheep Station, on the 
Moor River. The books and microscope you sent me have proved the 
means of somewhat alleviating my grief, by inducing me to attend to, 
botany; and I have occupied myself in sowing the seeds of obscure 
Cryptogamous plants, Marsileacee and Oharacee. If you happen to 
have any living plants of Marchantia polymorpha, Y wish you would 
kindly send me a frond or two, with the cup-bearing sporules, in a 
letter, I think they would germinate in this country. 
It is an extraordinary fact that I have known the anther to exert its 
influence on seeds of Marsilee, which must have lain in the ground for 
a vast and unknown period of time. These seeds, or involucres, were 
dug up when sinking a well on the alluvial banks of the Swan River: 
they were mixed with charcoal; for charcoal is invariably found in the 
alluvial deposits of the rivers in this country, to a depth which seems 
to prove that the present race of natives, or others having a similar habit 
of annually burning the country, must have inhabited these districts for 
a much longer period than can be ascertained of any set of people, not 
excepting the Chinese. 
I have now decided, after the first rains, which will fall in a month 
or six weeks, to start for the south and east. . The Stirling Range, ex- 
tending from the head of the Gordon River to Cape Rich, has scarcely 
been. visited, and I am in hopes of getting some interesting plants. 
There is little doubt that the country towards the north, in the interior, 
produces most species, even of Proteacee ; but the natives in that part 
of the country are a treacherous and undependable set. With such 
