Botanical Discovery.] INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. CXV 



Aiton's ' Hortus Kewensis,' and was thence, in 1814, despatched, through the instrumentality of Sir 

 J. Banks and Mr. Aiton (King's Gardener at Kew), on a botanical mission to the Brazils, and 

 thence, in 1816, to New South Wales. In 1817 he accompanied Lieutenant Oxley's* expedition to 

 explore the Lachlan and Macquarrie rivers. This journey, a toilsome and painful one of 1,200 miles, 

 extended across the Blue Mountains, within the parallels of 34° 30' and 32° S. lat., and 149° 43' and 

 143° 40' E. long., and produced about 450 species of plants. 



After his return to Sydney, Mr. Cunningham was engaged as botanist to Captain King's sur- 

 veying voyage, and arrived in the ' Mermaid ' at King George's Sound, early in 1818 : here traces of 

 Vancouver's garden were searched for in vain. Thence they proceeded to the islands and west coast 

 near Dampier's Archipelago, the Goulburn islands, and visited Timor before returning to Port 

 Jackson. This voyage seems to have yielded very few novelties, for in a letter to Mr. Heward he 

 says that the aggregate of his collections made on the coasts of Australia, does not exceed 300 

 species. 



Subsequently Mr. Cunningham visited the Illawarra district, perhaps the richest botanical 

 province in Australia, and in 1818 accompanied Captain King to Hobarton and Macquarrie Harbour. 



The survey of the north and west coasts was commenced by King in the ' Mermaid,' in May, 

 when Port Macquarrie and the Hastings River were visited, and the following places were successively 

 touched at, — Rodd's Bay, Percy Isles, Cleveland Bay, Halifax and Rockingham Bays, the Endeavour 

 River : after passing through Torres Straits, they stood across the Gulf of Carpentaria to Liverpool 

 River and Goulburn Islands for the second time, Vernon Islands, Cambridge Gulf, and Port "War- 

 render, whence they again visited Timor before returning to Port Jackson. 



The third voyage of the ' Mermaid' was undertaken in June, 1819, when Cunningham visited 

 Port Bowen, the Endeavour River, Lizard Island, Cape Flinders, Pelican, Haggerston, and Cairncross 

 Islands, Goulburn and Sim's Islands, Montague and York Sounds, Port Nelson, Brunswick Bay, 

 and returned to Port Jackson in December. 



In 1821, the survey was continued, when Cunningham visited Percy Islands, Cape Grafton, 

 Lizard Island, Cape Flinders, Clark's Island, and for the third time, Goulburn and Sim's Islands, 

 Careening Bay, Prince Regent's River, and Hanover Bay, whence they proceeded to the Mauritius 

 to refit. Thence they sailed to King George's Sound, where Cunningham found no traces of his own 

 garden, formed (in 1818) with great labour. Thence they proceeded up the west coast to Dirk Har- 

 tog's Islands and Cygnet Cove, whence they sailed for Port Jackson, where terminated Cunning- 

 ham's connection with the coast survey. 



In 1822, Cunningham again visited Illawarra, and afterwards crossed the Blue Mountains, to 

 the water-heads of the Ma'cquarie. On his return to Sydney in January, 1823, he prepared for a 

 more extended expedition, in which he opened up some of the most fertile districts of New South 

 Wales. Starting from Bathurst he proceeded to the Liverpool Plains, to which he descended from 

 the Pandora's Pass, discovered by himself, on the Blue Mountains, and visited the valleys beyond 

 Hawksbury Vale.f In November, 1823, he again left Sydney to explore another pass that had 

 been discovered leading to the Hawksbury. 



In 1824, Cunningham visited the southern parts of the Colony, by Camden, Argyll, Lakes 

 George and Bathurst, the source of the Murrumbidgee, Brisbane Downs, and Shoalhaven Gullies. 



* See Journals of Two Expeditions into the Interior of New South Wales, bv John Oxlev. Lieut. R.N. 4to s 

 1820. 



f An Account of this journey will be found in Field's 'New South Wales,' p. 133. 



