Botanical Discovery.'] INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. cxxiii 



This extraordinary journey is second in point of interest and extent of unknown country traversed 

 to Leichardt's only, and, unlike his, is no less fruitful of results in a botanical than in a geographical 

 point of view. i The energies of Dr. Mueller were here taxed to the uttermost ; and the collections 

 and botanical observations which were continuously and systematically made throughout the journey 

 were brought safe to Sydney, and abound in novelty and interest. These have been sent to Kew, 

 and a set retained for the herbarium at Melbourne. An excellent account of the vegetation of tro- 

 pical Australia was drawn up by Dr. Mueller,* and communicated to the Linnsean Society, and 

 published in its Journal (vol. ii. p. 137), and many of the plants discovered have been published by 

 himself in that work, in the ' Kew Journal of Botany/ and in the ' Transactions of the Victoria 

 Institute.' 



It would be beyond the object of this sketch to enter into more detail upon Dr. Mueller's publi- 

 cations, which will be found in his ' Reports ' alluded to, in the pages of the Transactions of the Phi- 

 losophical Society and Pharmaceutical Societies of Victoria, in the ' Linnsea,' in the ' Kew Journal of 

 Botany,' and in the ' Journal of the Linnsean Society of London.' 



Mr. Babbage's expedition to the countries around and north-east of Lake Torrens was under- 

 taken in 1858. Mr. Babbage was accompanied by a plant-collector, Mr. David Hergolt, who seems 

 to have made a good herbarium, especially considering the desert nature of the country. The re- 

 sults are published in a separate Report on the Botany of the Expedition, by Dr. Mueller (Victoria, 

 1859). 



In 1858, an Expedition under Mr. A. C. Gregory was despatched from Moreton Bay to discover 

 traces of the unfortunate Dr. Leichardt, when collections were made by that officer along and near 

 the Cooper's River and its tributaries in subcentral Australia, which have been enumerated by Dr. 

 Mueller in the official Report. 



III. COLONIAL BOTANISTS AND GARDENS. 



The first Colonial Botanist of whom I have any information was Mr. Charles Eraser, who, as I 

 am informed, was a soldier in the 73rd Regiment, then commanded by Lieut.-Col. M'Quarie. He was 

 an indefatigable collector and explorer, and enriched the gardens of England by numberless plants. 

 His collections of dried plants are, I believe, in the British Museum, and many are in the Hookerian 

 Herbarium. He visited the Swan River in 1826-7, and Moreton Bay in 1828, and wrote excellent 

 accounts of the vegetation of those districts (see Hook. Bot. Misc. vol. i. pp. 221 and 237). Mr. Eraser 

 also visited Tasmania, and established the Botanic Garden in Sydney. He died at the close of 1831 

 or beginning of 1832. On J Fraser's death, Mr. John M'Lean became Acting Superintendent, and 

 held that post till the arrival of R. Cunningham. 



Mr. Richard Cunningham was appointed in 1833, and was murdered in 1835 by the Blacks, 

 when accompanying Major Mitchell's second journey (see p. cxx.), when Mr. M'Lean again became 

 Acting Superintendent, and continued so till the arrival of Allan Cunningham in 1836, as men- 

 tioned in the notice of his life (p. cxvi.) . A. Cunningham soon after resigned, when he was suc- 

 ceeded by Mr. John Anderson, the botanical collector of Captain King's voyage to South America and 

 survey of the Straits of Magelhaens, etc. It was on King's homeward voyage that Anderson was left 

 at Sydney, where he made considerable collections, and held the appointment of Superintendent of the 

 Garden till his death, when he was succeeded, in 1847, by Mr. Charles Moore, the present active 

 * See page xxxix of this Essay. 



