FIVE EXTRA EXAMPLES OF WILLIAM SWAINSON’S BOTANICAL ART IN ILLAWARRA (from June 1852) GENTLEMEN,—As I am about to make a botanical and agricultural survey of the Illawarra district, with the view of making the results known to the people of England, as the result of personal observation, I shall feel obliged by any information which the landed proprietors of that district farming their own estates can give me, or by their desiring their agents on the spot to facilitate the object in question. May I request that you will give publicity to this request in your paper, and add that any reply may be sent to me at the Post Office, Wollongong. I remain, gentlemen, Your most obedient servant, WILLIAM SWAINSON, F.R.S. Australian Club, November 25. Sydney Morning Herald, 26 November 1851, p. 3 William Swainson (1789 - 1855) - Mount Keera, from Wollongong Rocks, N.S.Wales - June, 1852 pencil, 14 x 21.5 cm The Victorian Legislative Council had appointed Swainson its “Botanical surveyor” in June 1852.1 Yet “William Swainson, Esq., F.R.S., &c. &c. &c.” earlier in the same month of his public announcement intending to make a “make a botanical and agricultural survey of the Illawarra 1 Geelong Adver,ser and Intelligencer (Vic.), 8 November 1852 1 district”, was in Hobart and attended the monthly meeting of the Royal Society of Van Diemen's Land in Harrington Street. 2 Yet given the date of so many of his Illawarra pencil sketch Swainson must clearly have been down to Illawarra earlier in the year – June 1852 that is. William Swainson - Morton Bay Fig Tree - Illawarra, 3 June 1852. Pencil (22.5 x 15.5 cm). 2 The Courier (Hobart, Tas.), 12 November 1853 , p. 2 2 William Swainson - Creek – Illawarra[?]. Pencil (undated) 21.8 x 16.6 cm.. Inscribed “Cabb” and “cabbage [palm] in two locations top left and right 3 William Swainson – “Ab 15ft. height Nettle tree. Dapto Bridge - Illawarra, NSW, 29 May 1852”. Pencil (15.6 x 11.8 cm) 4 William Swainson (1789 - 1855) - Red Point from Wollongong point & The 5 Islands - 4 June 1852 pencil 13 x 21.4 cm The finest of the image seen above is, oddly, the least botanical one. "Mount Keera, from Wollongong Rocks, N.S.Wales - June, 1852 pencil 14 x 21.5 cm". It is not only an iconic image of Mount Keira (which today is almost invisible from where Swainson was standing when he did his sketch as multi-storey buildings block the view) but it’s also better than any other image, etching or photograph I have seen (just compare with the 1871 etching below). Mount Keira etching 1871 (artist and engraver unknown) But the etching is not a patch on Swainson’s pencil sketch seen, again, below. 5 William Swainson (1789 - 1855) - Mount Keera, from Wollongong Rocks, N.S.Wales - June, 1852 pencil, 14 x 21.5 cm Swainson’s image of the "15ft. hight Nettle tree. Dapto Bridge - Illawarra, NSW, 29 May 1852” is also of some interest - that is if Swainson indeed knew his botany (and whether or not he was an “expert" his numerous botanical annotations indicate he was certainly very interested in vegetation and local names) his “nettle tree” is either Illawarra’s famous “ stinging tree” (with its giant heart-shaped leaves) or Celtis australis - the European Nettle Tree. It would be great if they confirm it is an image of Illawarra’s giant stinging tree (Dendorcnide moroides). But even if not it and is, instead, Celtis australis (European Nettle Tree) it may also be significant. Celtis australis (according to Hilliers' Manual of Trees & Shrubs, 4th edition, p.70) was only introduced to England in 1796 and hence may possibly have been considered a “fashionable” planting by the early settlers in Illawarra who had seen it in England. And because the specimen Swainson records is at Dapto Bridge (where the giant Fig Tree after which the suburb of Figtree is named was once located and of which there are plenty of images) Swainson’s image may have added importance. 6 My guess is that even though Swainson’s image looks a little odd he had previously undertaken a much better sketch of a specimen that is mor obviously the heart shaped Nettle (stinging tree) found in Illawarra. “Young Nettle Tree Virgin Forest Wollongong 1852”. Pencil on paper, dated “11 June 1852” (18.5 x 12.5 cm). See Joseph Davis, “The Naturalist William John Swainson (1789-1855), October 2023, available on line (accessed 12 February 2024) at: https://www.academia.edu/108553342/THE_NATURALIST_WILLIAM_JOHN_SWAINSON_1789_1855_IN_IL LAWARRA’ 7 William Swainson – “Ab 15ft. height Nettle tree. Dapto Bridge - Illawarra, NSW, 29 May 1852”. Pencil (15.6 x 11.8 cm) 8 So my guess is that both of Swainson’s images do depict the “Stinging Tree (Dendorcnide moroides) found in Illawarra. Swainson's “Morton Bay Fig Tree - Illawarra, 3 June 1852” pencil image, however, looks an odd specimen to me (even though the leaves look reasonably accurate) but the trunk is highly unorthodox and the buttress roots (if they are actually there) are obscured by vegetation. It makes this pencil sketch a source of some curiosity for, while having quite some expertise in zoology, Swainson’s untrained foray into botany was not well received. William Jackson Hooker wrote to Ferdinand von Mueller: "In my life I think I never read such a series of trash and nonsense. There is a man who left this country with the character of a first rate naturalist (though with many eccentricities) and of a very first-rate Natural History artist and he goes to Australia and takes up the subject of Botany, of which he is as ignorant as a goose.” Whether the Illawarra botanical images produced in June 1852 and based on Swainson’s personal observations possess sufficient botanical accuracy to make them of scientific – apart from historical – interest is for others far more expert in Illawarra botany than myself to judge. Joseph Davis February 2024 9