JioTANY.] NATURAL HISTORY. 601 
the south-west of the last-mentioned sound, and it hap- 
pening at a season when some rain had fallen, I met with 
several plants in an abundant flowering state, of species, 
however, in part originally discovered upon other coasts, 
and described by Mr. Brown, during the Investigator's 
voyage. 
Of the West Coast (properly so denominated) which was 
seen during the Bathurst’s voyage, very little can be said in 
reference to its vegetable productions, and most probably 
nothing can be here advanced, tending to augment our very 
scanty knowledge of its Flora, acquired in part long since, 
through the medium of the celebrated navigator, Dampier, 
but more especially bj the botanists accompanying Captain 
Baudin’s voyage. I bad no opportunity of examining any 
part of the main, during our run northerly along its exten- 
sive shore, but I landed on Rottnest Island, and repeatedly 
visited the northern extremity of Dirk Hartog’s Island, off 
Shark’s Bay, where I gathered, under every discouragement 
of season, some of the most important portions of its rich 
vegetation ; in many instances, however, in very imperfect 
conditions of fructification. Its general features led me 
decidedly to assimilate it to the striking character of the 
botany of the South Coast ; a characteristic of which it is 
more than probable the nrain land largely partakes, if we 
may draw an inference from its aspect at widely distant 
parts. 
Upon those poriions of the North Coast, which were 
chiefly surveyed during the Mermaid’s first voyage, at a 
period immediately subsequent to the season of the rains, I 
had very fayourable opportunities of increasing my collec- 
tions upon the Goulburn Islands, Ports Essington and 
Raffles, Croker’s Island, Mount-Norris Bay, and on the 
shores of Van Diemen’s Gulf; and among many described 
