of Timor, without the loss of one individual by disease; though they had traversed at least five thousand miles of sea. Nay, so ardent was Bligh as a seaman, that, amid all those perils, he was occupied in making some very valuable observations.

The Dutch governor of Coupang shewed them every attention; and, from the care that was taken of them, twelve were enabled to return to England. Though the adventure had failed, every body was disposed to bestow all praise on the adventurer; and he was promoted to the rank of captain, and appointed to the command of his Majesty's ship Providence, in order to repeat the voyage.

His

The Providence, with the Assistant, a small ship, in company, sailed on the 3d of August, 1791. instructions were to procure the bread-fruit trees for the West Indies, and, on his return, to examine the passage between the north of New Holland and New Guinea-which, in his former voyage in the Bounty, he had been the first to navigate.

On the 9th of April, 1792, they reached Otaheite; and, by the 17th of July, they were ready to leave the island, having on board twelve hundred and eighty-one tubs and pots of plants, all in the finest condition. There was no mutiny on this voyage; but the passage between New Holland and New Guinea was dangerous; and it was the 2d of October before the captain reached his old friends at Coupang. He remained there for a week, replacing with plants from that island those that had died on the voyage; and then he came to the Atlantic by the Cape of Good Hope, which he contrived to pass so closely as never to have a lower temperature than sixty-one degrees of Fahrenheit.

On the 17th of September, he anchored at St. Helena, collected there a number of trees, and among others the akee; and, leaving twenty-three bread

fruits, and some other valuable plants, he sailed, and reached St. Vincent on the 23d of January, 1793— where he left with Dr. Anderson, the superintendent of the Botanical Garden, three hundred and thirtythree bread-fruit trees, and two hundred and eleven fruit trees of other kinds, receiving at the same time nearly five hundred tropical plants for the Botanical Garden at Kew. From St. Vincent, Captain Bligh sailed for Jamaica, where he left three hundred and forty-seven bread-fruits, and two hundred and seventysix others, which were a selection of all the finest fruits of the east. Some of the plants were also left on the island of Grand Cayman; and the ships finally came to the Downs on the 2d of August, 1793.

But, after all the peril, hardship, and expense thus incurred the bread-fruit tree has not, hitherto at least, answered the expectations that were entertained. The banana is more easily and cheaply cultivated, comes into bearing much sooner after being planted, bears more abundantly, and is better relished by the negroes. The mode of propagating the bread-fruit is not, indeed, difficult; for the planter has only to lay bare one of the roots, and mound it with a spade, and in a short space a shoot comes up, which is soon fit for removal.

Europeans are much fonder of the bread-fruit than negroes. They consider it as a sort of dainty, and use it either as bread or in puddings. When roasted in the oven, the taste of it resembles that of a potatoe, but it is not so mealy as a good one.

THE OTAHEITE HOG-PLUM-Spondias cytherea.

The tree which bears this fruit is large and graceful, rising to the height of fifty feet, spreading and shadowy. The fruit is oval, of considerable size, a fine golden yellow when ripe, very smooth, disagreeable to the smell, but having a fleshy pulp, and a great stone covered with fibres, which penetrate the

The Otaheite Hog-Plum-(Spondias cytherea). flesh. It is peculiarly grateful from its cooling, and, at the same time, aromatic qualities; and its flavour very much resembles that of the pine-apple. It is a very beautiful tree when in fruit. The leaves are of a dark clear green, among which the smooth fruit hangs in clusters, like burnished gold.

The fruits which have been yet discovered in Australia are neither remarkable nor numerous. Mr. Cunningham, who accompanied Captain King in his survey of the coast of that immense region, has, however, just sent home some curious specimens of fruit, which are thus described to us.

LIMONIA AUSTRALIS.

The Australian lime is a small green fruit, having the form and flavour of the lime. The tree is very green; the leaves lanceolate, with one or two slight notches in the edge. There is a long, stiff, and pointed green spine at the insertion of each leaf. This was lately discovered at Moreton Bay; the flower has not been seen.

LISSANTHE SAPIDA.

The Australian cranberry is a handsome bush, from six to nine feet high; it grows in forest lands near the Blue Mountains; the flowers are handsome; and the berries of a very delicate peachbloom colour, having something of the consistency and taste of the Siberian crab.

in Moreton Bay, New South Wales. It is the produce of a large and handsome tree, which belongs to a new and undescribed genus, though in some particulars it seems allied to Robinia. The leaves are pinnated, upon long footstalks; the leaflets entire, and there is a terminal one. The flowers, which are papilionaceous, are produced at the bases of the leaves in considerable numbers, not unlike those of the Robinia hispida. These flowers are succeeded by pods, very large, hard, and of a brownish, or cinnamon colour. These pods contain a variable number of roundish seeds or beans, compressed on the one side, and covered with a thin loose shell of a chesnut colour; when roasted, they have very much the flavour of chesnuts; and in a country where edible fruits of indigenous growth are few, they are at least a curiosity.

We have thus completed a rapid sketch of the various fruits of the world. As the commerce of mankind increases, the number of those valuable substances which we may secure to ourselves by cultivation will increase also; and, at the same time, we shall diffuse our own vegetable productions over the globe. In New South Wales the gardens of the settlers are filled with the plants which they cultivated in their native country. Colonization universally produces this good; and thus the intercourse of mankind may in time make the world one vast garden, in which all the blessings of a bounteous Providence shall be naturalised, as far as climate, or the science of man, can render those plants common to all, which were originally the property of a few.

London: Printed by W. CLOWES, Stamford-street.