Botanical Discovery.'] INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. cxvii 



' Blue Mountains/ the result of observations made in October, November, and December, 1822, pre- 

 pared in 1823, and published (1825) in Field's 'Australia,' p. 323 ; and a 'Journal of a Route from 

 Bathurst to Liverpool Plains in 1823,' ibid, p. 131. 



Captain King was succeeded by Captain Wickham, who in 1837 commissioned H.M.S. 'Beagle' 

 to explore certain parts of north-western Australia, and the best channels through Bass' and Torres' 

 Straits. Owing to Captain Wickham's illness the command devolved on Captain J. Lort Stokes, 

 who drew up the narrative of the voyage. No botanist accompanied the Expedition, nor is there in 

 the narrative any information of importance on the vegetation of the coasts surveyed ; but Mr. Bynoe, 

 the surgeon, made some valuable collections, chiefly on Dupuch Island, the Abrolhos, the Victoria 

 Eiver, Bass' Straits, and in New South Wales, which are preserved in Sir W. Hooker's herbarium. 

 The 'Beagle' returned to England in 1843. 



The establishment of Port Essington was founded in the year 1838, by Sir Gordon Bremer. 

 Mr. M'Gillivray was stationed at it for some time during the Expedition of Captain Blackwood ; and 

 Mr. Armstrong, a collector sent by Kew Gardens, resided there for several years, and made important 

 collections, a considerable portion of which are in Sir W. Hooker's herbarium. 



In 1840, Captain Sir James Ross visited Hobarton in H.M.SS. ' Erebus ' and ' Terror,' and spent 

 the months of August, September, and October there, during which extensive collections were made 

 by Dr. Lyall and myself, in the Derwent, and in the Lake district of Tasmania, and at Port Arthur. 



In 1841, the same Expedition returned to Hobarton to refit, and stayed through March, April, 

 and May, when the botanist visited the Huon River and Richmond districts. From Tasmania the 

 Expedition proceeded to Port Jackson, where also a considerable herbarium was formed, chiefly in the 

 neighbourhood of Sydney and Botany Bay. 



In 1842, Captain Blackwood was sent out in H.M.SS. 'Fly' and 'Bramble,' to make a further 

 survey of the tropical coasts of Australia, in which voyage he was accompanied by Mr. M'Gillivray 

 as Naturalist. The narrative of the Expedition was written by Mr. Jukes (Geologist to the Expe- 

 dition) , and contains no botanical matter. The coasts and islands visited by the ' Fly ' and ' Bramble ' 

 had been previously explored by Cunningham, and subsequently by Mr. M'Gillivray, a skilful na- 

 turalist, in H.M.S. 'Rattlesnake,' whose collections were sent to Sir W. Hooker. 



In 1847, H.M.S. 'Rattlesnake' was fitted out by Captain Owen Stanley, to discover openings 

 through the Barrier Reefs in Torres' Straits, to the northward of Raine Island passage, to examine 

 Harvey Bay as a site for a new settlement, and to make a general survey of the Louisiade Archi- 

 pelago. 



Many places were visited between Sydney, Cape York, and Port Essington, and excellent collec- 

 tions made at Port Curtis, rtockingharn Bay, Port Molle, Cape York, Goold, Lizard, and Moreton 

 Islands. The Expedition was accompanied by Mr. M'Gillivray, upon whom the task of editing the 

 narrative of the voyage devolved, owing to the death of its commander, in Sydney. Mr. M'Gillivray's 

 narrative abounds in interesting observations on the vegetation of Australia. Among the most 

 noticeable discoveries are, that of a clump of Cocoa-nuts on Frankland Islands, whence, no doubt, 

 the nuts and husks were washed to the mainland, where they had excited the curiosity of Cook, King. 

 etc. ; of Caryota urens and a native Musa, on the Peninsula of Cape York, and of the Balanophora 

 fungosa in Rockingham Bay. The author also mentions the existence of the Pomegranate on Fitzroy 

 Island, where (if no error exists) it has no doubt been planted. 



The account of Mr. Kennedy's disastrous attempt to penetrate from Rockingham Bay to Port 

 Curtis is appended to Mr. M'Gillivray's work ; it terminated in the murder of its leader, and death. 



