Naming of Plants

Naming of Plants

Naming of Plants

Today we have naming of plants.  Yesterday
we had raising the flag.  And tomorrow morning
we shall have what to do with the prisoners.  But today,
today we have naming of plants.  Lilly-pilly
sets pink saucers of sweetness all around Botany Bay
            and thus we revive the glory of jam.
 
These are Grevillea, Hakea.  And these,
Brunonia, Blandfordia, whose use you will see
when the Endeavour commands.  And these are Calandrinia,
which the natives call para-keel-ya.  Bu-jor
is Melaleuca the people here use for mattresses
            and dressing wounds, swaddling newborns.
 
This is Hibbertia, named after George Hibbert,
London merchant, one of our most generous patrons.
I don’t want to hear anyone call it its common name – Climbing
Guinea Flower.  This is our land, paid for with our coins.
Most of the blackfellas die of smallpox.  Some just disappear.
            Those that survive learn the King’s English.
 
And this little beauty is Darwinia.  I don’t need
to tell you who it celebrates.  No, not that one –
his grandfather.  Isn’t botany a system based on class,
the natural order of dynasty and empire?
We will remove the Cabbage Tree Palms and lose the emu,
            ship the rebels’ heads back home.
 
Back home to Sir Joseph Banks, the reason we’re here today,
naming the plants, in our own image – Old Man Banksia,
Swamp Banksia, Acorn Banksia, Cut Leaf Banksia –
stubborn, ambitious.  Note their spikes and cones, exotic blooms
in his Florilegium – wiri-ya-gan, wad-ang-gari –
            for today we have the naming of plants.