Mabberley, Plant introduction and hybridisation in colonial NSW 
547 
Bidwill also corresponded with Smith” about materials he had brought for Kew, 
apparently with a view to exchange for there is a great deal in the letters on the 
packing of plant-cases for NSW. The Exeter firm of Veitch was involved in preparing 
the shipment”. Lindley apparently supplied tender pines and other plants from the 
Horticultural Society, and Loddiges seems also to have been a source, both sending 
material to Kew to be packed, though Loddiges could not supply a number of things 
including mate tea (Ilex paragtiariensis) and jujube (Ziziphiis jujuba), Bidwill hinting 
that Smith might do so. 
New South Wales again 
Bidwill left England on the Arachnc and when he returned to NSW in 1844, he 
brought with him his sister Mary Came (who married William Macdonnell there in 
the same year (Bidwill & Woodhouse 1927, Ch. 14)), a stock of strychnine and an 
important collection of new plants, especially from Kew, including Araucaria 
aiigustifolia^', Lilium speciosum, Paulownia tomentosa, and Musa 'cavendisbii'^^ besides 
roses (only about ten of the original 50 survived the voyage), apples, cherry-plums 
(that at Camden Park subsequently dying”) and sweet-kerneled apricots which fruit 
would dry in the sun. Amongst the seeds were species of Mimuhis, Lobelia, passionfmit 
and Achimenes as well as Clerodendrum speciosissimum and Clivia nobilis, which he 
offered to King, complete with a supply of strychnine (at £3 per ounce) for poisoning 
sheep predators^, though James Bowman got two ounces for 50/-”. The Camden 
catalogue of 1845 shows that his introduction of Araucaria angustifolia {‘A. braziliensis'), 
Clerodendrum speciossisimum, Clivia nobilis and Lilium speciosum was successful. 
He sent plant material back to Herbert” including a hybrid Erythrina raised at 
Camden (see below) and continued the exchanges with Kew, sometimes passing on 
seeds to King (Maiden 1908). He was involved with the gardens at Camden, though 
at least sometimes his dealings were certainly on a commercial basis, his consignments 
'put up to the order of' Bidwill apparently charged to him as in August 1844 when 
an order worth £15 17 0 included the hybrid 'Erythrina camdenensis' [i.e. E. x bidzvillii; 
see Appendix], wisteria and a case of wine (15/-) for example”, suggesting again 
that at this time Camden was not where he was doing his own experiments. In 
August 1844, he accompanied Macarthur to Ravensworth, apparently to collect large 
numbers of Platycerium superbum in the Manning” and in December he could write 
to King of the hybrid crinums raised at Camden” (Maiden 1908), which are listed in 
the catalogue of plants growing there in 1845 (pp. 6-7), the Camden catalogues also 
listing hybrids of Hibiscus and Camellia (some of these original crosses still exist at 
Camden according to Professor Clough). 
Meantime, one of Bidwill's principal interests was still the raising of hybrid gladioli, 
sending conns and seeds to Bowman and to King, to whom he was giving advice on 
raising dendrobiums from seed” in October 1844, pointing out that Calochortus 
(Cyclobothra) albus was coming in to flower as well as his 'roseo-blandus' gladioli 
hybrids (listed with other hybrids in the 1845 Camden catalogue, p. 7), of which he 
sent seed with that of other hybrids the following December'". His hybridizing was 
advanced in that he could use dry pollen brought from afar provided that the stigma 
was moistened beforehand''^. He later wrote of his experiences in a letter to the 
Gardeners' Chronicle (27 July 1850 p. 470), 'Vitality of pollen', noting that it was not 
possible to keep pollen of Amaryllis or Crinum spp. from one season to the next but 
that it remained viable for more than three months. Gladiolus pollen could not be 
kept in his experience though that of G. roseus (= ? G. caryophyllaceus) two months 
old had fertilized G. blandus (= ? G. carneus). Pollen of lilies would not keep at all 
