350 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



the Eoyal Society," with whom, as we have seen, Anderson w^as 

 personally acqiminted. Of this there are two full descriptions ; 

 the translation of the note appended to the latter runs: "The 

 Habit, and acrid w^atery taste of the plant, agrees with the others 

 of the fourteenth Class [Tetradynamia] ; but it differs from all by 

 having no Corolla, and the Stamina being equal. It is therefore 

 a new Genus, belonging rather to the fourteenth than the sixth 

 Class. It is found on Kerguelens Land, Lat. 48 S. Long. 69 E." 



It is remarkable that a plant so obviously distinct should have 

 remained unknown and unnoticed for so long a period, as it w^as 

 not until 1845 that J. D. Hooker published the elaborate account 

 of it (Fl. Antarct. ii, 238-40) based upon specimens collected by 

 himself of " perhaps the most interesting plant procured during 

 the whole of the voyage performed in the Antarctic Seas." Brown 

 directed his attention to Anderson's MSS. (from which Hooker 

 cites both names — Diaijliora7ithus and Pringlea — adopting the 

 latter) and suggested the specific name antiscorhuiica, ignoring 

 one which Anderson had given it. It may be noted that Hooker 

 says the plant w-as discovered by Cook during his first voyage ; 

 it was, however, during the third voyage that it was found by 

 Anderson, whose account of the vegetation of what Cook thought 

 would be more appropriately called " the Island of Desolation" 

 (w^hich includes a description of Pringlea), will be found in Voyage 

 to Pacific Ocea7i, i, 84. Pringle's " work on scurvy," to which 

 Hooker refers, is the " Discourse upon some late Improvements 

 of the Means for Preserving the Health of Mariners," which, as 

 President, he delivered at the Eoyal Society at its anniversary 

 meeting, November 30th, 1776, on the occasion of presenting the 

 Copley Medal to Cook ; it is appended to Cook's account of his 

 second voyage (ii, 369-396). 



The reason for the neglect of Pringlea is doubtless to be found 

 in the fact that Anderson's specimens were not incorporated in 

 the Banksian Herbarium, and thus did not come under the critical 

 examination of either Solander or Dr3'ander, although the former, ' 

 at any rate, had inspected them. The bundle containing them 

 seems to have been lost sight of until Hooker, in 1843, examined 

 it for his Flora Antarctica, at which period he tells us that "not 

 having been poisoned, all the Kerguelen plants were much injured 

 by insects, and man}- vrere entirely destroyed " (Phil. Trans, extra 

 volume, 1868, p. 9). Excellent specimens, however, remained of 

 a grass which he described (El. Antarct. i, 382) as Festuca Cookii, 

 basing his description upon Anderson's specimens and his own ; 

 later (Phil. Trans. 1868, p. 41) he referred the species to Poa, in 

 which it had been placed by Solander when he looked through 

 the bundle. Shortly after I came to the Department of Botany 

 (1871) I went through the bundle and found these specimens, 

 with a note by Solander — " Hab. Paludosa " — and those of 

 Pringlea already mentioned — the latter in bad condition, but 

 sufficiently entire to allow of their incorporation in the herbarium. 

 These were accompanied by a ticket in Anderson's hand with the 

 name Diayhoraiithus and a reference to his MSS. It is this 



