Hunter's Hill, N.S.W.
26 Decr [19]09
Mr dear Dr Wallace
I am posting this with a copy of W. Wooll's1 census (record) of the County of Cumberland, the area of which he puts as 914,800 acres = 1430 sq miles. The number of Cotyledon Plants enumerated I make out to be 1239. There are several species, which I have found not included but they will not make a great difference, I notice, in looking through for instance two species of Casuarina and of Melaleuca, which Baron F. Mueller named after me — it is impossible to get a complete list of any area. Something is always turning up that is near to the neighbourhood.
Mr Hedley has kindly got Dr Chapman's Flora of Mosman (about 2 square miles) [2]
marked in the same Census. W Chapman has evidently paid no attention to the Rushes[?], Cyperaceae [sedges], or Grasses.
Since 1883 I have been living on the Parramatta River — for seven years at Gladesville, the rest of the time at Hunter's Hill. I made a pretty careful examination of the locality as for some years I used to spend hours of my Saturday and Sunday afternoons searching the district. I send you a list of the number of plants found according to the natural orders, which may be useful. The area which I have taken as roughly 20 square miles runs about 5 miles up and down the Parramatta River, including Hunter's Hill, Gladesville and Ryde and takes in both shores of the Parramatta River and a good part of the Lane Cove [3] River. It is a well defined compact area about 5 miles long and 4 miles broad and the list is one which I think you may rely on. Probably, any careful person would tend to increase the list, but not by very many as there are not many patches of ground that I have not been over. A great deal of the country is now destroyed from a botanical point of view, as buildings and the trampling of the ever increasing population of Sydney has probably caused the extermination of many species. I always <reckon> myself fortunate that I saw the greater part of Gladesville and Ryde in its primeval beauty.
Mr A G Hamilton has promised to send me the results of his collection at Mt Kembla (Illawarra District) Mount [4]
Myrtaceae | 55 | Convolvulaceae | 6 |
Rhamnaceae | 4 | Solanaceae | 2 |
Araliaceae | 4 | Scrophulariacea | 4 |
Umbelliferae | 13 | Bignonaceae | 1 |
Santalaceae | 4 | Acanthaceae | 2 |
Olacineae[?] | 1 | Labritae[?] | 11 |
Loranthaceae | 6 | Verbenaceae | 4 |
Proteaceae | 35 | Epacridae[?] | 25 |
Thymeleae[?] | 2 | Coniferae | 2 |
Rubiaceae | 6 | Orchieae | 59 |
Compositae | 32 | Irideae | 2 |
Campanulaceae | 7 | [illeg.] | 3 |
Nylideae[?] | 2 | Liliaceae | 21 |
Goodeniaceae | 6 | Philhydreae[?] [Philydro?] | 1 |
Gentianaceae | 2 | <Hyrideae> | 1 |
Loganiaceae | 3 | Typhaaceae [Typhaceae] | 2 |
Plantagineae | 1 | Alismaceae [Alismataceae] | 1 |
Primulaceae | 1 | <Najindeae> | 3 |
Myrsubaceae | 2 | <Kerolidzae> | 4 |
Jasminaceae[?] | 2 | <Imiceae> | 7 |
Apocynaceae | 1 | Restionaceae[?] | 3 |
Asclepiadaceae | 2 | <Eriobaulus> | 1 [5] |
Centrolepidae [fish?] | 1 | ||
Cyperaceae | 30 | ||
Graminideae | 31 |
Total 618 species
The arrangement of the Natural order is that adopted in Mr Wooll's census
HD [Henry Deane]2 26.12.09
Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP3544.3440)]
For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon
Please cite as “WCP3544,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 29 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP3544