LATE ALLAN CUNNINGHAM, ESQ. 275 



of the coast we have visited can possibly exceed this island, 

 considering its extent, for its barren parched appearance; for, 

 upon the shores near us downs of sand of very considerable 

 surface appeared rising to a ridge perhaps 200 feet high, 

 in most parts extremely bare of vegetation, and those por- 

 tions which were covered seemed to be burnt up with tlie 

 heat of the sun. In a walk of two hours I gathered the fol- 

 lowing plants: — Beanfortia Dampierl, A. Q\xnn., Artemisia 

 sp,, Westringia cinerea, Sida sp., Euphorbia eremophila, 

 Sapindacece,a shrub frequent in low brush-wood, Trichimnm 

 incanum, (discovered by Danipier,) Gornphrena sp., a dif- 

 fuse plant, past flowering, but bearing seed, Hibiscus cap- 

 rceodorus, Podolepis tenera, and a shrub of Rutacerr, seem- 

 ingly Diplolccna of Mr Brown, originally discovered and 

 figured by Dampier, and a curious procumbent plant of 

 Capparidw." They sailed from Dirk Hartog's island on the 

 26th, and continued their survey of this peculiarly arid sandy 

 coast under most unfavourable weather. While in Cygnet 

 bay, Mr Cunningham had a narrow escape off a point that 

 bears his name: he had gone with an officer in the second 

 cutter, in hopes of landing and adding something to his col- 

 lections, when a gale sprung up that nearly swamped their 

 small vessel, and they had great difficulty in rejoining tlie 

 Bathurst, whose cable had parted during the gale. On the 

 20th of February, when there being no appearance of a ces- 

 sation of bad weather, and their provisions also running low, 

 Captain King was unwillingly compell-ed to take his depar- 

 ture from the coast, and after a somewhat tedious passage, 

 arrived in Sydney Cove on the 25th April. Thus terminat- 

 ed Mr Cunningham's four years' voyages with Captain 

 King, in which the botany of a lai-ge portion of the coasts of 

 New Holland were investigated, and many remarkable forms 

 detected. Among others may be noticed eight new species of 

 that interesting genus Grevillea, from the north and north- 

 west coasts* — the only genus of Proteacece that is abundant 



* Supplementum primum Prodromi Florae Novae HoUandiae, Robertui 

 Brown, 1830, p. 17. 



