Botanical Discovery^ INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. cxix 



' Gardens. Of these a few were published by Lesson and A. Richard, in 1832, in an octavo volume 

 of letterpress, and folio of plates. 



Captain D'Urville again visited Australia, Sydney, and also Tasmania, when on his memorable 

 voyage to the Antarctic regions in 1839, when collections were made by MM. Hombron and Jacqui- 

 not, the medical officers of the Expedition, at Sydney, Port Essington, Raffles Bay, etc., but very 

 few of them have been published. 



The United States Exploring Expedition, under Commodore Wilkes, visited Tasmania and Sydney 

 in 1839, and large collections were made, near Port Jackson, etc. These have been in part published 

 by Professor Asa Gray, of Harvard University, Cambridge, in his excellent ' Botany of the United 

 States Exploring Expedition,' of which one quarto volume of letterpress and one folio volume of plates 

 alone have hitherto appeared. 



The Austrian exploring-frigate ' Novara ' has returned to Europe during the passage of these 

 sheets through the press, and has no doubt brought valuable collections, but I am not aware of their 

 nature or extent. 



II. LAND EXPEDITIONS UNDERTAKEN BY ORDER OF THE HOME OR COLONIAL GOVERNMENTS. 



The first Colonial Expeditions that added much to our knowledge of the botany of Australia were 

 those of Lieutenant Oxley, Surveyor- General of New South "Wales, across the Blue Mountains. Mr. 

 Oxley started on his first expedition, in 1817, to ascertain the course of the Lachlan, and was accom- 

 panied by Allan Cunningham, as Bang's Botanist, and Mr. Fraser, as Colonial Botanist. Early in 

 1818, Mr. Oxley, with Mr. Fraser, again left Sydney, to examine the course of the Macquarie. On 

 both these occasions large collections were made, and the journal of the Expedition was published by 

 Lieutenant Oxley in one quarto volume (London, 1820). 



The land expeditions of Allan Cunningham, in 1826 and 1827, are the next in date; they have 

 been already noticed (at p. cxiv.). Captain Sturt's Expedition was despatched to follow up Cunning- 

 ham's and Oxley's discoveries. 



Captain Charles Sturt, an officer of his Majesty's 39th Regiment, then on military duty in 

 New South Wales, was commissioned by the Colonial Government to ascertain the course of the 

 rivers rising on the western watershed of the Blue Mountains. He accordingly left Sydney in 

 1828, proceeded to the Wellington Valley, taen the most remote north-western settlement, and pro- 

 ceeded down the Macquarie to the Darling River, whence he returned to Sydney. In 1829 another 

 Expedition was fitted out, under Captain Sturt, and despatched to the Murrumbidgee River, when 

 the Murray was discovered, and named, and followed to its debouche in Lake Alexandria, and thus 

 into the sea, from whence the Expedition returned by the same rivers. There are no botanical 

 observations in the narrative of these remarkable and interesting journeys, nor is there any notice 

 of collections having been made. 



In 1844, Captain Sturt started from Adelaide on another and still more remarkable journey; 

 when, advancing north into the heart of Australia, he reached the 25th parallel of latitude in 

 longitude 139 E. On this occasion a considerable collection was made, amounting to about 100 

 species, some of which were described by Brown in the appendix to Captain Stint's narrative of 

 the Expedition. 



Captain (now Sir George) Grey's Expeditions on the west coast of Australia were organized in 

 the hope of discovering a large river or inlet which was supposed to exist in that quarter. The 



