Botanical Discovery.} INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. CX111 



and value of the results of the various explorers and collectors, to indicate the extent of coast 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 pr'.vate resources. 



In a few cases I have had to depart from this arrangement, some of the most distinguished 

 Austraban 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. 



I. VOYAGES OF DISCOVERY AND SURVEY. 



For the first glimmerings of light upon the vegetation of Austraba, we are indebted to the great 

 buccaneer and navigator Dampier, who in 1688 visited Cygnet Bay, on the north-west coast of the 

 Continent; and in 1699 he returned to the west and north-west coasts in H.M.S. f Boebuck' 

 (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 1 703. 



The first botanical investigators of any part of Australia were Mr., afterwards Sir Joseph Banks, 

 and his companion, Dr. Solander, 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 in- 

 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 Wallis's Islands. 



The plants of Cook's first voyage formed part of the famous Banksian herbarium, which, after the 

 death of its possessor, passed to the British Museum. Of the Australian plants, consisting of nearly 

 1,000 species, a portion only have been published in Brown's 'Prodromus Flora? Novae-Hollandise.' 



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 one of his ships, the 

 ' Adventure,' commanded by Captain Furneaux, visited any part of Australia, arriving at Adventure 

 Bay, Tasmania, in February, 1773. 



In Cook's third voyage, Adventure Bay was again visited, in January, 1777, and a considerable 

 collection made by Mr. David Nelson, and Mr. Anderson, the surgeon of the ( Resolution,' which 

 are preserved in the Banksian herbarium. 



