William Jackson Hooker

“ The liberality with which Ferdinand Bauer had been treated by the English government, in whose service he had remained, finishing the plates illustrative of the expedition, up to the year 1813, enabled him, on his return to Austria, to purchase a small house at Hitzing, near Vienna, adjacent to the large Botanic Garden of Schœnbrunn. Here he worked very hard in executing aud completing his drawings of New Holland plants and animals, as well as some plates of his Illustrationes, filling two large volumes with the former. He enjoyed the friendship of the different Naturalists in Vienna ”

“ On the 21st we proceeded on our way towards Australind, and in about twenty miles reached the estuary of the Harvey, or the southern extremity of the embouchure of the Murray. We had two miles of water to pass through, but accomplished it in safety before dark. We had still to spend a couple of nights in the bush before reaching Australind, but nothing worthy of record took place.
Australind is situated on the Leschenault estuary, which is formed by the waters of the rivers Collie and Preston. In the immediate vicinity of the town, the soil is sandy; but the situation highly beautiful. ”

“ However, the elder Bauer must have possessed decided talents as an artist, all his three sons having become eminent in his profession, viz: Francis Bauer, F.R.S., botanical painter to the King at Kew, and Joseph, director of the picture gallery to the above named prince at Vienna. In his earliest youth, Ferdinand copied plants and birds from the designs of his late parent, but soon he took to painting from nature, and followed her as his chief guide throughout life. ”

“ The pollen sends out tubes from four points which are previously visible as circular disks. The pollen-tubes appear to be branched, and much entangled; their diameter not more than one fifth of the tubular cells composing the stigmatic tissue, and on that account they would be very distinguishable if they penetrated that tissue, but I could never find any in that part, and still less within the ovarium. On the other hand, I extracted a grain of pollen from one of the cells of an invaginated hair on the style which exhibited traces of four pollen-tubes. ”

“ Norcote and several individuals of the mounted police, some soldiers of the 21st, and gentlemen on horseback, being engaged in a surveying expedition, arrived at Pinjarra, which is the nearest ford across the Murray River, after leaving the estuary. On reaching this place, having learned that a large body of natives had encamped a little to the south, the Governor directed Captain Ellis, with the officers, to go and demand some of those black men, who were charged with the murder of the soldier above mentioned, and the attack on Serjeant Barron. ”

“ During his excursions from False Bay to Table Mountain, and those at King George's Sound, until the first arrival of the "Investigator" at Port Jackson, Bauer had completed, up to the 22d. of May, 1802, 350 sketches of plants, and 100 of animals, &c. On quitting the latter place for Torres' Straits, he writes on the 20th of July that his collection then comprized seven hundred drawings, which he had left for safety in the house of the Governor. This astonishingly rapid increase might seem almost incredible in any artist of less ability than our friend ”

“ But it is a most unfortunate characteristic of these natives, in common with many savage nations, that when they cannot take reprisals on the offending parties, they wreak their vengeance on the relatives and friends; thus making the innocent suffer for the guilty, too often on both sides. Shortly previous to the battle of the Pinjarra, it so happened that a Serjeant Barron, of the 63rd regiment, the first soldiers sent to do duty at the Swan River, and who had become a settler at Perth, went into the bush in search of some horses, which belonged to him, near Mr. ”

“ It is easy to perceive by a glance at these plates, that they were never executed at home, and from dried specimens. Figures of Flindersia australis, Endesmia tetragona, and Franklandia fucifolia, are acknowleged by botanists to surpass every thing of the same kind. ”

“ Flinders in his expedition to New Holland, and whom they had seen actually engaged in delineating the extraordinary productions of those distant regions."
In 1819, Bauer again visited England, in order to see his brother, and the other valued friends, with whom a companionship of nearly 30 years had quite assimilated his ideas and feelings. He soon afterwards returned to Vienna, and continued to devote himself closely to painting, most of his productions being destined to go to England, where, besides the works above mentioned, were published his plates for the late Mr. ”