66 



KNOWLEDGE 



[March 1, 1897. 



same ancestry as the underbred animal of the West, and 

 consequently that " blood " is merely a matter of careful 

 selection and breeding for countless centuries, and is not 

 due to inherent superiority of origin. From the plains of 

 Turkestan the hoi-se spread in one direction to the 

 Punjab and the plains of Hindustan, and in the other 

 through Persia to Mesopotamia and Assyria, and thence 

 westwards to Egypt and southwards to Arabia. Among 

 the Arabs it soon became indispensable to its master ; and, 

 as already said, this intimate union between man and 

 quadruped renders it difficult to believe that Arabia is not 

 the original home of the horse. Uncivilized races, though 

 highly conservative in some matters, in others soon adapt 

 themselves to new circumstances ; and the case of the 

 North American Indians affords an example of the rapidity 

 with which a people among whom the horse was unknown 

 can develop into a race of horsemen. Had we not historic 

 evidence to the contrary, there is, indeed, no saying but 

 that the original subjugation of the horse might not have 

 been attributed to the Indian of the prairies. 



When I began this article, I hoped to say something as 

 to the origin of the cat and dog, but this must be reserved 

 for a future occasion. 



♦ 



ON THE VEGETATION AND SOME OF THE 

 VEGETABLE PRODUCTIONS OF AUSTRA- 

 LASIA.-I. 



By W. BoTTiNG Hemsley, F.K.S., F.L.S. 



THE more comprehensive geographical term Aus- 

 tralasia is employed in the heading of this series 

 of articles, because, although the vegetation of 

 Australia proper is the main theme, comparisons 

 are occasionally made with the vegetation of New 

 Zealand, Tasmania, and other islands. 



It seems almost incredible that less than two hundred 

 years ago absolutely nothing was known of so vast a 

 country as Australia, and that little more than a century 

 has elapsed since the foundation of the first settlement ; 

 but such is the case. In 1699 the renowned Captain 

 William Dampier sailed from England in command of 

 H.M.S. Piodnu-I; on a voyage of discovery to West Australia, 

 he having previously, on a voyage of adventure, touched 

 at a point of NorthWest Australia. 



Dampier was a keen observer, and he devoted special 

 attention to the vegetable productions of the various 

 countries which he visited. He, unlike the commanders 

 of most of the great subsequent expeditions, carried no 

 naturalist ; but he was no mean naturalist himself for the 

 period, and few of his successors have written so well on 

 natural history. The part of Australia he visited on the 

 north-west coast was exceedingly barren, and his descrip- 

 tion of it was not such as to tempt other navigators, or 

 would-be colonists. A few sentences from his account of 

 his first visit will give an idea of his impressions of the 

 country : — 



" New Holland is a very large tract of Land. It is not 

 yet dettrmined whether it is an Island or a main Continent ; 

 but I am certain that it joyns neither to Asia, Africa, nor 

 America. Thi^ part of it that we saw is all low even Land, 

 with sandy Banks against the Ssa, only the points are 

 rocky, and so are some of the Islands in this Bay. 



" The Land is of a dry sand soil, destitute of Water, except 

 you make Wells : yet producing divers sorts of Trees : but 

 the Woods are not thick, nor the Trees very big. Most of 

 the Trees that we saw are Dragon-trees [gum trees or 

 Eucalypti] as we supposed ; and these too are the largest 

 Trees of any there. They are about the bigness of our 

 large Apple-trees, and about the same heighth : and the 



rind is blackish, and somewhat rough. The leaves are of a 

 dark colour ; the Gum distils out the knots or cracks that 

 are in the bodies of the Trees. We compared it with some 

 Gum Dragon, or Dragon's Blood, that was aboard ; and it 

 was of the same colour and taste. The other sorts of Trees 

 were not known by any of us. There was pretty long 

 Grass growing under the Trees ; but it was very thin. We 

 saw no Trees that bore Fruit or Berries. 



" We saw no sort of Animal, nor any track of Beast but 

 once ; and that seemed to be the tread of a Beast as big as 

 a great Mastiff-Dog. Here are a few small Land-birds, but 

 none bigger than a Blackbird : and liut few Sea-fowla. 

 Neither is the Sea very plentifully stored with Fish, unless 

 you reckon the Manatee and Turtle as such. Of these 

 creatures there is plenty ; but they are extraordinary shy ; 

 though the Inhabitants cannot trouble them much, having 

 neither Boats nor Iron. 



" The Inhabitants of this Country are the miserablest 

 People in the world." 



The part explored was a large bay in which there are 

 numerous islands, between sixteen degrees and seventeen 

 degrees south latitude. A part of the adjacent mainland 

 is now called Dampier Land, and the islands Buccaneer 

 Archipelago ; the latter doubtless in allusion to the fact 

 that Dampier and his crew were really buccaneers. On his 

 voyage in the Roebuck, in 1699, Dampier surveyed a long 

 stretch of the coast, from Sharks' Bay, as he named it, 

 northward. This is in about twenty-five degrees south lati- 

 tude, where he found the country pretty and inviting, 

 though there were no large trees. Arriving in August, 

 " most of the trees and shrubs had either blossoms or 

 berries on them. The blossoms of the different sorts of 

 trees were of several colours, as red, white, yellow, etc., 

 but mostly blue ; and these generally smelt very sweet 

 and fragrant, as did some also of the rest. There were 

 also besides some plants, herbs, and tall flowers, and 

 some very small flowers growing on the ground, that were 

 sweet and beautiful, and for the most part unlike any I 

 had seen elsewhere." 



I will give only one more extract from Dampier. It 

 shows how keenly alive he was to the beauties and utilities 

 of the native flora. In about twenty-one degrees south 

 latitude, on the western side of Australia, the reader will 

 find an island named Bosemary Island. Concerning this 

 island Dampier says : " There grow here two or three 

 sorts of shrubs, one just like Rosemary ; and therefore I 

 called this Rosemary Island. It grew in great plenty here, 

 but had no smell. Some of the other shrubs had blue and 

 yellow flowers, and we found two sorts of grain like beans. 

 The one grew on bushes ; the other on a sort of creeping 

 vine that runs along on the ground, having a blossom like 

 a bean blossom, but mi;ch larger, and of a deep red colour, 

 looking very beautiful." The last is Cliantlnis Dum/ncri. 



Dampier brought home dried specimens (preserved at 

 Oxford and in the British Museum) of some of the plants 

 that struck him by their peculiarities, and, having a person 

 on board skilled in drawing, he caused drawings to be made 

 of a number of plants, birds, and animals, engravings of 

 which were published in 1703, in the volume from which I 

 have quoted. 



Confining ourselves to the flowers, it is interesting to 

 note that the figures are sufticiently accurate to enable one 

 to identify most of them. But before giving an account of 

 the firstfruits of Australian botany it may be well to give 

 some particulars of the vegetation, and some comparisons 

 of it with what we in the northern hemisphere, and more 

 especially in the British Islands, are familiar with. Iq a 

 country having an area of nearly three million square miles, 

 stretching through forty degrees of longitude and twenty- 



