NATURAL HISTORY. 
409 
have been visited by two English and two French expe- 
ditions of discovery ; namely, those commanded by Admiral 
D’Entrecasteaux, Captains Vancouver and Flinders, and 
Commodore Baudin. The first merely touched upon the 
south coast at the Recherche’s Archipelago, and on the 
south shores of Van Diemen’s Land; and the second only 
at King George the Third’s Sound, near the South-west 
Cape ; but these opportunities were sufficient to celebrate 
the names of Labillardiere and Menzies as Australian Bota- 
nists, notwithstanding they have been since eclipsed by the 
more extensive discoveries of Mr. Brown, whose collections 
of Natural History upon the voyage of Captain Flinders, 
and his pre-eminent qualifications, have justly raised him to 
the pinnacle of botanical science upon which he is so firmly 
and deservedly elevated. 
Peron and Lesueur, in Baudin’s voyage, extended their 
inquiries chiefly among the branches of zoological research ; 
but in that expedition each department of Natural History 
had its separate collector, and the names of Leschenault de la 
Tour, Riedle, Depuch, and Bailly, will not be forgotten. Un- 
fortunately, the Natural History of this voyage has never yet 
been given to the world, the death of M. Peron having put 
a stop to its publication; a few of the subjects, however, 
have been taken up by MM. Lacepede and Cuvier, and 
other French naturalists, in the form of monographs, in 
their various scientific journals ; but the greater part is yet 
untouched, probably from the want of the valuable in- 
formation which died with its collector. M. Peron, in his 
historical account of that expedition, notices a few subjects 
of zoology that were collected by him, but in so vague a 
manner, that it is with very great doubt that the specimens 
which we procured, and suspect to be his discoveries, can 
be compared with his descriptions. 
