Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia, Volume 2: With Descriptions of the Recently Explored Region of Australia Felix, and of the Present Colony of New South WalesMitchell, T. L. (Thomas Livingstone)
History
Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia, Volume 2: With Descriptions of the Recently Explored Region of Australia Felix, and of the Present Colony of New South Wales
Mitchell, T. L. (Thomas Livingstone)
Australia -- Discovery and exploration; Mitchell, T. L. (Thomas Livingstone), 1792-1855
PLANT OF A NEW GENUS.
While awaiting the slow progress of the carts through the mud I found a
most curious new genus allied to Correa, with the habit of C. speciosa,
and with long tubular four-petaled green flowers. It had been previously
observed by Mr. Cunningham, who called it Sida correoides; it was however
not a Sida, nor even a Malvaceous plant, but a new form of Australasian
Rutaceae, differing from Correa in having the petals each rolled round a
pair of stamens in its quadripartite conical calyx, and in there being
constantly two seeds in each cell of the fruit.*
(*Footnote. Didimeria aemula, Lindley manuscripts; undique pilis
stellatis lutescentibus furfuracea. Rami stricti. Folia subrotunda
cordata obtusa opposita brevi petiolata, pellucido-punctata. Pedunculi
axillares, filiformes, uniflori, supra medium bracteolis 2 subulatis
acuti. Calyx conicus, membranaceus, 4-partitus: laciniis acuminatis.
Petala 4, longissima, distincta, linearia, convoluta circa staminum
paria, extus tomentosa intus glabra. Stamina 8, hypogyna; filamentis
liberis, lineari-lanceolatis, membranaceis, alternis brevioribus;
antheris sagittatis inappendiculatis. Stylus filiformis glaber. Discus 0.
Capsula 4-cocca, villosissima, coccis dispermis, endocarpio solubili;
seminibus uno supra alterum positis.)
MORE LAKES OF BRACKISH WATER.
July 30.
By pursuing a course towards the base of the friendly mountains I hoped
that we should at length intercept some stream, channel, or valley where
we might find a drier soil and so escape, if possible, from the region of
lakes. We could but follow such a course however only as far as the
ground permitted and, after travelling over the hardest that we could
this day find for a mile and a half, I discovered a spacious lake on the
left, bounded on the east by some fine-looking green hills. These
separated it from a plain where I found the ground firm, and also from
several smaller lakes to the right of my intended route. I accordingly
proceeded along the ground between them, and I found that it bore the
wheels much better than any we had recently crossed. The lakes were
however still precisely similar in character to those of which we had
already seen so many. The water in them was rather too brackish to be fit
for use, and the ridges were all still on the eastern shores. From the
highest of these ridges the pinnacled summits of the Victoria range
presented an outline of the grandest character. The noble coronet of
rocks was indeed a cheering object to us after having been so long half
immersed in mud. We had passed between the lakes and were proceeding as
lightly as we could across the plain when down went the wheel of a cart,
sinking to the axle, and the usual noise of flogging (cruelty which I had
repeatedly forbidden) and a consequent delay of several hours followed.
ESCAPE AT LAST FROM THE MUD.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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