104 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. XXV. 



On Leichhardt's second expedition he tells us that he collected 

 upwards of one thousand plants, in triplicate where practicable, 

 and these were placed in the National Herbarium, Melbourne. 



In Leichhardt's " An Account of a Journey to the Westward of 

 the Darling Downs, undertaken with the View of Examining the 

 Country between Sir Thomas Mitchell's Track and My Own," 

 and on his expedition to Peak Range, he speaks highly of the 

 seeds and plants Bunce collected. 



Bunce also collected " in the neighbourhood of the Darling 

 Downs, and especially in the dense brushes of Moreton Bay and 

 northerly ranges of Wide Bay." 



He reached Melbourne (St. Kilda) after an absence, with 

 Leichhardt and on his own account, of nearly three years. 

 " After recruiting, we resumed our travels down the Murray 

 River, which we followed till it joined the sea through Lake 

 Alexandrina and Encounter Bay — having by this means followed 

 the Great Western system of waters from their upper sources in 

 the tropics." An account of this excursion was published in the 

 Melbourne Argus under the title of " Journal of a Naturalist." 



Mr. William Sangster, of Melbourne, has favoured me with the 

 following information : — " Daniel Bunce, who was designer and 

 first curator of what used to be designated the Geelong Botanic 

 Gardens, claimed the honour of being Victoria's first botanist. 

 In 1852-53 he was manager of a Bendigo mining company, and 

 used to send interesting contributions to the Melbourne Argus 

 descriptive of the flora of the Bendigo Ranges. Mr. Bunce, with 

 whom I was intimately acquainted, was a botanical enthusiast, 

 and managed, with little money help, to establish a collection of 

 trees and plants in Geelong almost equal to that of the Melbourne 

 Botanic Garden." 



Bunce wrote the following works : — "A Manual of Practical 

 Gardening for Van Diemen's Land" (Hobart Town, 1838) ; " The 

 Australian Manual of Horticulture," by Daniel Bunce, author of 

 " Hortus Tasmaniensis ; " " Guide to Linnean System of 

 Botany;" " Manual of Tract. Gardening, &c." (2nd ed., Melb., 

 1850); "Languages of the Aborigines of Victoria and other 

 Australian Districts, with Parallel Translations and Familiar 

 Specimens in Dialogue" (i2mo, Melb., 1851); "Wanderings 

 in the Australian Colonies " {Journ. of Australasia, i., 1856) ; 

 " Australasiatic Reminiscences of 23 Years' Wanderings in 

 Tasmania and the Australias ; including Travels with Dr. 

 Leichhardt in North or Tropical Australia" (Melbourne, 1857). 

 (This work contains many autobiographical notes.) "Languages 

 of the Aborijrines of Victoria and other Districts ; Dialogues, 

 Parallel Trans., &c." (Geelong, 1859.) 



He is commemorated by Panicum Buncei, F. v. M. 



I am indebted to Messrs. William Sangster and W. R. Guilfoyle 

 for some of the information concerning Mr. Bunce. 



