THE FORSTER HERBARIUM. 861 



" Botanical investigations in connection with the ' Challenger ' 

 Expedition again brought to mind the existence of this interesting 

 collection at Liverpool, and it was determined to make another 

 effort to rescue it from oblivion, which was fortunately successful. 

 A few words respecting the botanical collection of Cook's voyages 

 generally, and of this one in particular, will be welcome to those 

 interested in botany. Sir Joseph Banks and Dr. Solander accom- 

 panied Capt. Cook on his first voyage round the world ; John 

 Eeinhold Forster and George Forster, father and son, were the 

 botanists of the second voyage (1772-75) ; and Mr. Anderson, the 

 surgeon of the expedition, collected a little on the third voyage. 

 From a statement in Sparmann's ' Travels in South Africa,' it 

 seems that Forster the elder undertook the duties of naturalist to 

 the expedition for the sura of £4000, and he took his son with him, 

 then only seventeen years old, as an assistant. On arriving at the 

 Cape of Good Hope they fell in with Sparmann, who, at the 

 instance and expense of Forster, was added to the scientific staff, 

 and continued with them until the return to the Cape in 1775. 

 Considerable collections of plants were made in New Zealand, 

 many parts of Polynesia, and the extreme south of America, and 

 smaller collections in some of the Atlantic Islands, including 

 St. Helena, Cape Verd Islands, and Canaries. On returning to 

 England the Forsters soon commenced publishing the botanical 

 results of the expedition, and an authenticated set of all the pub- 

 lished plants at least was deposited in the British Museum. The 

 Cape plants, however, which they did not publish, are apparently 

 not represented there. The first botanical work, ' Characteres 

 Genera Plantarum,' appeared in 1776, and the title-page bears the 

 names of both father and son, and this was the only one published 

 in England. For the rest, the botany was done by the son alone. 

 His ' Florula Insularum Australium Prodromus ' appeared at 

 Gottingen in 1786, and ' De Plantis Esculentis Insularum Oceani 

 Australis ' at Berlin, in the same year, followed by ' De Plantis 

 Magellanicis et x\.tlanticis,' at Gottingen, in 1787. 



" These works, we believe, constitute the whole of the published 

 botany of the expedition, and, though very meagre, are extremely 

 interesting, being the foundation of our knowledge of New Zealand, 

 Antarctic, and Polynesian vegetation. 



" The collection now acquired for Kew is excellently preserved, 

 and the plants mostly named and localised. It comprises altogether 

 1359 species, 785 of which were collected on the voyage with 

 Cook, and the rest, from various parts of the world, are probably 

 some of those alluded to above as having been presented to Forster 

 by his friends. 



" The collection includes a large proportion of the plants pub- 

 lished by the Forsters, but it is not complete. Eoughly, there are 

 187 species from Polynesia, 119 from New Zealand, 21 from the 

 extreme south of America, 23 from the Atlantic Islands, including 

 all those described by Forster from St. Helena, and 9 from Aus- 

 tralia. Besides the foregoing, which are all phanerogams, there 

 are 36 ferns, but they include only a small portion of the species 

 described by Forster." 



