INTRODUCTION 
in the course of this year:”* later, in an undated letter to Hasted, the historian of Kent, written early in 1782, he 
says he hopes soon to publish the work, for which he had then “near 700 plates prepared.” Smith, commenting 
on the former passage, says that this “lasting monument of botanical fame” was “ sacrificed to the duties 
incumbent, for almost half a century, on the active and truly efficient President of the Royal Society.”} Solander’s failure 
to complete his portion of .the work is attributed by Smith to “ the interruption caused by other avocations, the 
dissipation of London society, to which so agreeable a companion was always acceptable, and the indolence induced 
by a sedentary and luxurious life."§ The very numerous MSS. left by Solander, and the fact that the descriptions, 
with the exception of the Australian plants, had been transcribed by him for the press, seem to qualify Smith’s 
implied censure, and suggest that the position and numerous occupations of Banks were mainly responsible for the 
delay which resulted in the non-production of the work. 
It may be well to give some description of the various MSS. connected with the voyage, as the published 
accounts are incomplete or inaccurate. The earliest is a catalogue, for the most part in Banks’s hand, of the 
plants collected, ‘in the order in which they were loosely placed in the drying books in which they were brought 
home”; in the earliest part of this the number of specimens of each plant is indicated. This list has been 
annotated by Solander (who wrote the portion relating to New Holland) and Dryander, and is of great service 
in correlating the names temporarily bestowed upon the plants (which are often transcribed on the sheets in the 
Banksian Herbarium) with those under which they were subsequently published. 
During the voyage, the more interesting of the plants were roughly described by Solander, whose MSS. are 
now bound in six small quarto volumes—“ Plante Terre del Fuego” (Jan., 1769), with which is bound ‘“ Plante 
Insulz Sancte Helene” (May, 1771); “Plante Otaheitenses et aliarum ins. Oceani Pacifici” (April to July, 1769); 
“Plante Australize (N. Zeelandia)” (Oct., 1769, to March, 1770); ‘Plantae Nove Hollandiz” (April to August, 1770) 
in two volumes; “Planta Javanenses” (Oct., 1770, to Jan., 1771). A transcript of the Tierra del Fuego descriptions, 
systematically arranged and: prepared for press, is bound in a folio volume with similarly prepared enumerations of 
the plants collected in Madeira (Sept., 1768) and Brazil, “circa Rio de Janeiro” (Nov., Dec., 1768), of which no 
rough MSS. remain; a second folio volume contains the prepared transcript of the Pacific Islands collection, and a 
third (paged continuously with the preceding), the “ Primitiz Flora Nove Zeelandie.” A similar enumeration of 
the Javan plants was begun, but extended only to twenty-eight pages. 
The Australian plants, which formed the most important portion of the collection, were never arranged for 
press in the manner of the foregoing, but a transcript of the rough MS. was made, apparently by some one 
imperfectly acquainted with botanical terminology or unable to read the draft, as it contains numerous errors ; this 
is bound in two small quarto volumes, and is the basis of the present publication, for which it has been collated 
with the original draft. It has been thought advisable to print the descriptions in full as a specimen of Solander’s 
work and as giving details omitted from published accounts of the plants; occasionally a word has been supplied 
or an unpublished synonym suppressed, but these alterations are indicated by the use of square brackets. The MS. 
includes a large number of descriptions besides those of the plants figured, but only the portion relating to these 
is now printed. It was evidently, however, not finally prepared for publication, as the arrangement is not systematic, 
and only the plants considered as new are included. 
The biography of Sydney Parkinson, the draughtsman to whom the figures of the plants and animals observed 
on the voyage are due, is sufficiently recorded in the preface to his Journal of a Voyage in the South Seas, published 
after his death and edited by his brother Stanfield; but a few words may be said with special reference to his 
connection with Banks. His brother tells us that he “was put to the business of a woollen-draper ; but, taking 
a particular delight in drawing flowers, fruits, and other objects of natural history, he became so great a proficient 
in that style of painting, as to attract the notice of the most celebrated botanists and connoisseurs in that study. 
In consequence of this, he was, some time after his arrival in London, recommended to Joseph Banks, Esq., 
whose very numerous collection of elegant and highly-finished drawings of that kind, executed by Sydney 
Parkinson, is a sufficient testimony both of his talents and application.” This collection included 4o_ 
drawings of animals made from figures and specimens brought from India by John Gideon Loten, Governor 
of Ceylon, and 12 drawings of plants (1767-8) which, like those of the animals, are on vellum. Two, of Indian 
plants, are probably from the drawings brought back by Loten; others are noted as from “ Mie ees 
Hammersmith,” and “Kew.” According to the Déctionary of National Biography, it was by the advice of James 
Lee (not “an artist” but the well-known nurseryman of Hammersmith) that Parkinson was engaged by Banks 
to accompany the voyage to the South Seas. He died during the return voyage on January 26th, 1771. 
The total number of drawings made by Parkinson during the voyage was 955, of which 675 were 
sketches and 280 finished drawings, All the Australian and most of the New Zealand ones are sketches ; those 
from Brazil, Madeira, Tierra del Fuego, and the Friendly Islands are nearly all finished drawings; of the Java 
* op. cit. ii. 575- + Correspondence of Linnzus, 579. 
+ Banksian Correspondence (MS.) ii. 99. $ op. cit. ii. 2. 
