250 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 



tlie cutter, on an excursion to the more elevated ranges of 

 hills bounding the grassy and flat lands southerly. In my 

 various daily walks in pursuit of Flora, which occupied my 

 time during the first week of my stay there, much pleasure 

 was derived in tracing the steps of Sir Joseph Banks and his 

 learned colleague Dr Solander, and detecting many plants 

 then discovered, that in all probability have never been seen 

 in a living state since that period. Among them were Gre- 

 villea gibbosa, in flower and fruit, prevalent on the rocky 

 hills; a beautiful bluish-flowering Nymphcca, like N. versi- 

 color, Rox., expanding itself on the surface of the chains of 

 stagnant pools in the lower lands, and the ornamental Melas- 

 toma Banksii, clothing the muddy shaded banks of these 

 small ponds. The rocky gullies, trickling with small runs of 

 water, afforded me scope for much minute research ; for there, 

 more particularly, the delicate filiform minute Stylidia, some 

 small Eriocaula and Xy rides, appeared to abound, with some 

 GentiancE, delighting in a humid shallow soil. Among the 

 plants observed on a strip of sandy desert, under the range 

 of hills to the southward of our anchorage, I was successful 

 in collecting a number of bulbs, {Crinutn angustifolium,) 

 which could be but barely traced by the existence of slight 

 vestiges of their decayed foliage lying on the surface of the 

 sand. The summits of the ridges, and more especially tiie 

 northern sandy shore, added some interesting plants to my 

 augmenting collections. On the arid wastes of the latter, I 

 gathered a most beautiful plant of Dilleniacea, Hemistemma 

 Banksii, R, Br. It was a subject of much regret to me, 

 that, in consequence of the rupture with the natives, my 

 walks, during the last week of our stay at Endeavour River, 

 were either very much circumscribed or wholly prevented. I 

 had determined upon an excursion for a couple of days, at least, 

 to the more distant and loftier hills, whose woods, densely 

 matted to their very summits, would doubtless have afforded 

 me some considerable scope for plodding botanical research. 

 This plan, however, with some minor excursions, was wholly 

 frustrated by the decidedly hostile dispositions of the natives ; 



