-eil Discover)).'] 
INTKnlHCTORY ESSAY. 
and value of the results of the various explorers and collectors, to indicate the extent of COasI and 
interior wholly or partially explored, and to enumerate the narratives and other works which will be 
found to contain the most botanical information. 
I have arranged the subject-matter under four heads. 
1. Voyages of Discovery and Survey, undertaken by the English, French, and American 
Governments. 
2. Land Expeditions undertaken by order of the Home or Colonial Governments. 
3. Colonial Botanists and Botanical Gardens. 
4. Botanical explorers who have worked chiefly on their own or other private resources. 
In a few cases I have had to depart from this arrangement, some of the most distinguished 
Australian explorers having served in several capacities. Thus Allan Cunningham filled the appoint- 
ments of His Majesty's Botanist in Australia, Colonial Botanist of New South Wales, Botanist to 
Captain King's voyages, and has also been the leader of several inland exploratory journeys. Dr. 
Mueller has also distinguished himself in several scientific capacities, and, for extent and range of his 
journeys, ranks second to Allan Cunningham alone of all Australian botanical explorers. 
For the first glimmerings of light upon the vegetation of Australia, we are indebted to the grea 
buccaneer and navigator Dampier, who in 1688 visited Cygnet Bay, on the north-wist coast of the 
Continent; and in 1699 he returned to the west and north-west coasts in H.M.S. 'Roebuck' 
(King's Voy., 1. xxi). The herbarium of Dampier is still preserved at Oxford, and (as I am in- 
formed by Mr. Baxter, Curator of the Oxford Botanic Gardens) contains forty specimens, eighteen 
of which are figured in his 'Voyage,' published in 1703. 
The first botanical investigators of any part of Australia were Mr., afterwards Sir Joseph Banks, 
and his companion, Dr. Solandcr, the Naturalists of Captain Cook's first voyage. Cook's ship the 
'Endeavour' anchored in April, 1770, in Botany Bay, so called by its discoverers from the number 
and variety of the plants collected by the naturalists during their week's stay there. Proceeding 
thence northward they landed successively in Bustard Bay, lat. 24° 4', Thirsty Sound, Point Hillock, 
and Cape Grafton, lat. 16° 57', beyond which point the 'Endeavour' struck on a reef, and after m- 
curring imminent peril, she was brought to the Endeavour River, lat. 15° 26', on the 18th June, 1770. 
There it was found that the herbarium had suffered from the immersion of the ship, but the greater 
part was eventually preserved. The ' Endeavour ' subsequently visited Cape Flattery, Lizard Island, 
Weymouth Bay (12° 42' S.), Possession Island, the northern extreme of Australia and \\ albs s Islands. 
The plants of Cook's first voyage formed part of the famous Banksianheriwnnm, winch, after the 
death of its possessor, passed to the British Museum. Of the Australian plants, emoting of nearly 
1,000 species, a portion only have been published in Brown's ' Prodromus Flora, Nov*-Hollandia3 
Captain Cook, on his second voyage, was accompanied by J. R. Forster and his son George, who 
made many discoveries in the Pacific islands, Fuegia, and New Zealand, but only c 
' Adventure,' 
Bay, Tasmania, in February, 1773. 
In Cook's third vovage, Adventure Bay was again l 
collection made by Mr. David Nelson, and Mr. Anderson, the surgeon of the ' Resolutic 
are preserved in the Banksian herbarium. 
ommanded by Captain Furneaux, visited any part of Australia, arriving at Adventure 
