THE society's heritage prom the macleays. 585 



Maeleay at Elizabeth Bay, a mile and a half from Sydney, was for the purpose of 

 erecting a family house and eultiv.-iting a garden. Mr. Macleay's knowledge as a 

 horticulturist is likely to prove beneficial to the colony. He has already spent a 

 considerable sum on the improvement and cultivation of his gi'ounds and in erect- 

 ing a stable and other offices preparatory to building a house, which it is his in- 

 tention shortly to commence. From the manner in which he has entered into 

 this undertaking and the scale on which he has commenced to settle and stock the 

 land he has received for agricultural purposes (the usual grant of 2500 acres), 

 he will no doubt prove an important acquisition to the colony. In this respect 

 alone, the capital which he has already vested in stock, and is still continuing 

 to expend, being considerable.' .... The formal gTant was dated 19th 

 October, 1831." ["Potts' Point. Darling Point and Neighbourhood, in the Early 

 Days," by .J. A. Darling, Journ. Proc. Aust. Historical Soc, Vol. ii., 190G, Part 

 3, p. 55 (1909).] 



The conditions on which the grant was made were loyally fulfilled, and there 

 is ample evidence that the expectations of the value of his horticultural know- 

 ledge were realised. 



Alexander Maeleay seems to have been interested in liorticulture before he 

 came to Australia. Robert Brown contributed a botanical supplement to the 

 "Narrative of Travels and Discoveries in North and Central Africa, by Denliam 

 and Clapperton," published in 1826 [Reprinted in R. Brown's Collected Works, 

 Vol. i., p. 270], from which I quote the following: "Respecting Bocconia cordata, 

 though it is so closely allied to Bocconia as to afford an excellent argument in 

 favour of the hypothesis in question, it is still sufficiently different, especially in 

 its polyspermous ovarium, to constitute a distinct genus, to which I have given 

 the name (Macleaya cordata) of my much valued friend, Alexander Maeleay, 

 Esq., Secretary to the Colony of New South Wales, whose merits as a general 

 naturalist, a profoimd entomologist, and a practical botanist, are well known." 



Mr. Maeleay may have brought out to Australia with him plants or seeds 

 from England, as he certainly did from Rio Janeiro, where the vessel called on the 

 voyage out, as mentioned in Di'. Bennett's account of his visit to Elizabeth Bay in 

 1832 [po^tea']. We have no family record of the progress of the garden later 

 than Mi-s. Macleay's letter written in June, 1827, until about 1836, when Mr 

 Maeleay began to keep separate records, in two small books, of the plants and 

 seeds which he obtained, and of the sources from which they came. 



But most interesting references to the garden by three visitors — Allan Cun- 

 ningham, Dr. George Bennett, and James Backhouse — during the intervening 

 period, are available. These accounts show that much progress had been made in 

 clearing, laying out, and planting the originally sterile area of Hawkesbury Sand- 

 stone. 



Allan Cunningham visited Elizabeth Bay in 1830, and again in 1831, just 

 before leaving for England in the ship "The Forth" on February 25th, 1831. The 

 following is his account: — "I now left Parraraatta, and accompanied by a friend, 

 reached Sydney in the afternoon, where T learnt that the departure of the ship was 

 postponed until the 16th [February, 1831]. This gave me more time to settle 

 certain matters of business in Sydney, as also to call on several friends living at 

 this port, and among them was Mr. Maeleay, our worthy colonial secretary, whom 

 I accompanied to his retreat on the shores of Elizabeth Bay, where I was not a 

 little delighted to find so much had been done in planting and improving the 



