194 president's address — section d. 



IX.— NORTHERN TERRITORY, (k) 



We now come to the Northern Territory, a political division of 

 South Australia, which, so far as its botany is concerned, is divided 

 by no sharp line of demarcation from its southern neighbor. At the 

 same time it is convenient, although the division be arbitrary, to take 

 special cognisance of botanical exploration in the Northern Territory. 



At Port Darwin we have an interesting Botanical Garden, under 

 the direction of Mr. Nicholas Holtze. It is not as well known as it 

 should be, and T would suggest that here we have the nucleus of a 

 valuable tropical garden, which can be modestly worked on the lines 

 of Buitenzorg in Java, and Peradeniya in Ceylon, where Australian 

 botanical students and visitors from other countries may study tropical 

 Australian vegetation, and also tropical plants grown under Australian 

 conditions. The support of it might well be made a federal matter, 

 if necessar3\ 



Allan Cunningham. — The first botanical exploration of any 

 portion of the Northern Territory (and it was a coastal examination) 

 was by Allan Cunningham, in Captain P. P. King's circumnavigation. 

 The account of the expedition is contained in — 



1. "Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western 

 Coasts of Australia," performed between the years 1818 and 1822, 

 by Captain P. P. King, F.E.S. 2 vols. 8vo. London, 1827. 



He surveyed the intertropical and western coasts, and is valuable 

 for Arnhem's Land, Melville Island, and other parts of the Northern 

 Territory. 



Since Allan Cunningham was the botanist of the expedition, the 

 botanical results were important. He contributed to vol. II., pp. 

 497-533, " A few general remarks on the vegetation of certain coasts 

 of Terra Australis, and more especially of its north-western shores." 



Cunningham's plants exist in various herbaria, and they, with 

 the above " remarks," should be studied by every botanist investigating 

 the early botanical history of the Northern Territory. 



Leichitardt. — 1. " Journal of an Overland Expedition .... 

 from Moreton Bay to Port Essington, during the years 1844-5," by 

 Dr. Ludwig Leichhardt (1847.) 



This journal is accompanied with three maps, and the third shows 

 Leichhardt's exploration in the Northern Territory. Chapters XIII.- 

 XV. chiefly refer to the Northern Territory, and contain much botanical 

 information. 



2. " Some Observations on Dr. Leichhardt's Overland Journey 

 from Moreton Bay, on the East Coast of AustraUa, to Port Essington, 

 on the North Coast," bv R. Heward. (Hooker's Lond. Journ. Bot., 

 VI., 342, 1847). [ 



(k) As already mentioned, the Northern Territory includes all the country north 

 of 26° N. The Macdonnell Ranges, and much of the area already referred 

 to, consequently falls within the Northern Territory. Under the present 

 heading I have confined myself to country at no great distance from Port 

 Darwin, the Victoria River, and the Gulf of Carpentaria. 



