III.— BOTANY, 



Abt. XLVI. — Notes on MS. Descriptions of Collections made 

 during Captain Cook's First Voyage. 



By T. Kirk, F.L.S. 



[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 25th September, 1895.] 



It affords me great pleasure to comply with the request of Sir 

 James Hector to give a short account of the valuable type- 

 written MS. which he has had laid upon the table this evening. 

 It will be remembered by all present that the most famous of 

 modern navigators, Captain Cook, was accompanied on his first 

 voyage by two naturahsts who took their place amongst the 

 foremost scientific men of the day — Sir Joseph Banks and Dr. 

 Solander — the entire cost of the natural-history investigations 

 made during the voyage being defrayed by the generosity of the 

 former. Captain Cook first landed on the shore of New Zea- 

 land at Poverty Bay, on Sunday, the 8th October, 1769, and 

 subsequently visited Tolaga Bay, Opuaragi (Mercury Bay), the 

 Thames Eiver, the Bay of Islands, Queen Charlotte Sound, 

 Admiralty Bay, &c., during which the naturalists collected 

 about 360 species of flowering-plants and ferns. But they 

 were no mere collectors : folio drawings of most of the plants 

 were made by Sydney Parkinson, one of the draughtsmen 

 engaged for the voyage, and on the return of the expedition to 

 England were engraved on copper ; while excellent MS. de- 

 scriptions were prepared by Dr. Solander, the entire cost 

 being defrayed by Banks. Unhappily, these plates and de- 

 scriptions have never been published. At the instance of 

 Sir James Hector, the Board of Governors of the New Zea- 

 land Institute authorised the necessary outlay for copying the 

 descriptions in London, and the MS. is now submitted for 

 inspection. Sir Joseph Hooker, in the introduction to the 

 original " Flora Nova3-Zelandise," speaks of Solander 's MS. in 

 very high terms, and from such references as I have already 

 been able to make I can heartily indorse his testimony to 

 its merit. It is most unfortunate that for a century and 

 a quarter plates and descriptions alike have remained inac- 

 cessible to local botanists. Had they been published by their 



