AYILLIAM ANDERSON AND PLANTS OF COOK's THIRD VOYAGE 351 



name which the plant bears in Brown's MS." description, which 

 includes an account of the seeds which had been given him 

 by Dickson, " a D. Evans vigniti circiter abhinc annis a Terra 

 Kerguelin recepta." Brown probably had specimens from Ander- 

 son's collection, as we know to have been the case with Aroma- 

 dendron already mentioned ; we also have from Brown's her- 

 barium a specimen of Anderson's Euphocarpus (Correct alba 

 Andr.) named by him. The Banksian herbarium contains 

 specimens endorsed by Dryander, "Van Diemen's Land, W'" 

 Anderson and Dav. Nelson," and by whom the species is dedicated 

 to Anderson. 



III. — Plants collected by David Nelson. 



The botany of the Voyage is more fully represented in the 

 National Herbarium by the plants obtained by David Nelson, a 

 Kevv gardener who was sent by Banks to collect for him. This 

 we learn from the transcript of Banks's correspondence in the 

 Department of Botany (vol. v. f. 146), where, in a memorandum 

 recommending Nelson for the post of collector on Bligh's voyage 

 to the West Indies (1787), Banks writes (March 30th, 1787) that 

 Nelson " sailed with Captain Cook on his third voyage round the 

 world in my service for the purpose of collecting plants and seeds, 

 and was eminently successful in the object of his mission : he had 

 been regularly educated as a gardiner (sic) and learned there the 

 art of taking care of plants at sea, and guarding against the many 

 accidents to which they are liable, which few people but himself 

 have had any opportunity to know practically : he learned also 

 how to conduct himself on board a ship, and made an acquaintance 

 with inhabitants of the South Sea Islands and their language, which 

 will in all probability facilitate his obtaining the number of plants 

 wanted, a matter in which, as the Indians have never been accus- 

 tomed to sell them, and a large number will be wanted, difficulties 

 may arise." Occasional references to Nelson as a collector will 

 be found in Cook's Journal of the Voyage. 



No list of Nelson's plants has been preserved, but they are 

 referred to incidentally in the publications of botanists who have 

 consulted the Banksian Herbarium, through which they are dis- 

 tributed, and they are also cited in the Solander MSS. Bret- 

 schneider (Hist. Eur. Bot. Disc. 153) gives a list of eleven Chinese 

 species collected by Nelson, compiled from various sources, 

 several of which are cited in the Index Florce Sinensis as being 

 found in the Herbarium ; these were collected at Canton and 

 Macao on the return of the expedition in December, 1779. 

 Nelson's Sandwich Island plants are cited in the Flora Vitie7isis, 

 and his Australian specimens are also in the Herbarium : his 

 Adventure Bay plants are referred to by J. D. Hooker (Fl. 

 Tasm. i, p. cxiii). Brown in dedicating to him the genus 

 Nelsonia (Prodr. 481) speaks of him as " hortulanus meritissimus, 



* I do not think it is generally known that the Department of Botany 

 contains a very large series of Brown's MS. descriptions, corresponding in 

 format with the Solander MSS. and arranged systematically in Solander cases. 



