14 XEW ZEALAND PLANTS. 



CHAPTER II. 



HOW THE STORY HAS BEEN WRITTEN. 



Sir Joseph Banks His love of natural history Banks and Solander in 



Zealand The first work on the New Zealand nora Explorations by the 

 French Allan Cunningham and his brother Raoul and the plants of 

 Banks Peninsula The work of Colenso A novel collecting-kit Sir Joseph 

 Hooker and New Zealand botany Classical works on the plant-life of New 

 Zealand Explorations of the Southern Alps Hector, Buchanan, and Haast 

 -Thomas Kirk and the modern period of New Zealand botany. 



As was shown in the last chapter, if long descent counts for anything, 

 the plants of New Zealand rank high among the aristocracy of the 

 vegetable kingdom. On the other hand, their first historians became 

 acquainted with them only one hundred and forty-one years ago. 



Sir Joseph Banks and Dr. Daniel Charles Solander, dining the 

 month of October. 1769, found themselves in a new world, whose 

 plant-life was all strange, and where every tree and shrub and herb 

 was a fresh surprise and a great joy. And yet for ages before these 

 intrepid scientists had ventured forth, and for ages, likewise, before the 

 remote ancestors of the Maoris had completed their most peiilous 

 voyage, year by year unseen, the alpine meadows of the Southern Alps 

 had decked themselves with a wealth of blossoms, the pohutukawas 

 of the northern cliffs had been each summer a crimson glory, and 

 in the swamps the lurid blooms of the flax had attracted countless 

 bell-birds and tuis with their nectar. 



Even from boyhood Banks had shown much taste for natural 

 history. The story goes that, walking along an English lane gay 

 with wild flowers, he exclaimed, ' ' How beautiful ! It is surely more 

 natural that I should be taught to know all these productions of 

 nature in preference to Latin and Greek ! ' From that time onwards 

 natural science was his occupation, and during a long lifetime he 

 devoted his wealth and energies to its advancement. Thus it was 

 that, at his own expense, he presided over the natural-history investi- 

 gations of Captain Cook's first voyage, accompanying that illustrious 

 navigator, and taking as his colleague Dv. Solander, as well as several 

 assistants. 



