[534
CHARACTER AND DESCRIPTION
OF
KINGIA, &c.
(Read before the Linnean Society of London, Nov. 1 and 15, 1825.)
In the Botanical Appendix to the Voyage to Terra Australis, I have mentioned a plant of very remarkable appearance, observed in the year 1801, near the shores of King George the Third's Sound, in Mr. Westall's view of which, puplished in Captain Flinders' Narrative, it is introduced.
The plant in question was then found with only the imperfect remains of fructification: I judged of its affinities, therefore, merely from its habit, and as in this respect it entirely agrees with Xanthorrhœa, included the short notice given of it in my remarks on Asphodeleæ, to which that genus was referred.[1] Mr. Cunningham, the botanist attached to Captain King's voyages, who examined the plant in the same place of growth, in February, 1818, and in December, 1821, was not more fortunate than myself. Captain King, however, in his last visit to King George's Sound, in November, 1822, observed it with ripe seeds: and at length Mr. William Baxter, whose attention I had particularly directed to this plant, found it on the shores of the same port in 1823, both in flower and fruit. To this zealous collector, and to his liberal employer, Mr. Henchman, I am indebted for complete specimens of its fructifi- [535
