First Fleet artwork collection

View of a tree, with details of a fruiting branch, an individual flower and seeds. The whole tree is depicted on the lower half of the sheet standing on a green to yellow mound overlaid with grey serpentine lines and tufts of grass. The trunk is dark brown-grey, and the clumps of foliage are represented by a grey-green wash overlaid with short horizontal lines of darker green, with some yellow in the top clump. Above is a detail of a branch with leaves and fruit. The leaves are ovate and arranged alternately along the green stem. The upper surfaces are green with a pale grey-green central vein overlaid with black venation, while the undersides are pale grey-green overlaid with grey venation. The fruits are depicted from both the side and head-on, and appear to be found and flattened, and composed of six segments. They are cream in colour with a dark centre. In the centre of the sheet there is a detail of a single flower with the petals separated to show six stamens with red anthers, and two separate small red seeds below. The drawing is annotated in brown ink.

• Port Jackson Painter]
• The drawing is inscribed in blue pencil at top right with the number "395", which refers to the pre-1984 numbering system for the Watling Collection.
• The drawing is annotated in brown ink at top left "January" and alongside the detail of the branch "Natural size", at centre alongside a detail of the flower "Natl size", and at bottom "Grows to a tree about 30 or 40 feet in heigth & found near the sea shore".
• The drawing is unsigned and undated.
• The author of this catalogue record is Suzanne Stenning.
• By permission of the trustees of the Natural History Museum (London)
• Two sets of transparencies held in the Natural History Museum (London) Zoology Library and Picture Library: Picture Library reference number 12460
• James Lee of Kensington : purchased ; 1902
• Data sheet available