PUBLISHED BY EEEVE, BEOTHERS. 7 



Royal Botanic Garden at Kew, will enable the Author to make a very 

 important addition to the extra-tropical Botany of the Southern Hemi- 

 sphere. 



As the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury have been pleased to 

 grant a liberal sum of money towards defraying the expense of the 

 Plates, the Publishers are enabled to produce the work in the most 

 carefid and higldy finished style, at a price considerably below that of 

 similar publications, giving the fuU benefit of the Admii*alty grant to 

 the public. 



Vol. I., Part L, of the Flora Antarctica, comprising The Botany 

 of Lord AncliancVs Group and CamfhelVs Islands complete, illustrated 

 •with eighty plates, wdl be published on the 1st of May, neatly bound 

 in cloth, price 4Z. 8s. coloured, %l. 17s. plain. 



N.B. The Flora Antarctica, complete in itself, wiU be followed 

 by two others, for which ample materials were collected during the same 

 Voyage : — viz. 



The Flora ISTov-E Zelandi.e, or Botany of New Zaaland, illustrated 

 with 140 Plates ; and the 



Flora Tasjianica, or Botany of Van Diemen's Island, Ulustrated 

 with 200 Plates. 



" Our readers are acquainted with the nature and objects of the South Polar Expedition, in 

 1839 — 1843, under the command of Capt. Sir James Ross. To this expedition Dr. Hooker was 

 attached as Botanist, and the present work is the result of his labours. That accurate descriptions 

 and drawings of objects of natural history, collected on a government Expedition, should be in the 

 hands of the public a few months after the return of the discoverers is a matter for congratulation. 



" We had supposed from a knowledge of the fact that there are at this moment deposited in our 

 various museums, hundreds and thousands of plants and animals, which have been collected from 

 various parts of the world, of which the public have as jet had no account, that diflBculties of a 

 peculiar kind, arising out of the supineness of the government, prevented the collectors of these 

 objects from making them known ; but here we have a proof to the contrary, and we learn with 

 great pleasure that Her Jlajesty's Government have been as ready to assist i)r. Hooker, as he has 

 been active and industrious in arranging his materials for publication. 



"The parts of this work, so far as they have been published, contain descriptions and drawings 

 of the plants found on Lord Auckland's Group and Campbell's Islands. The Flora of these islands 

 closely resembles that of New Zealand, and does not participate in the characters of an Australian 

 vegetation. 



" In exposed situations the vegetation is stunted and checked, but in the vallies between the 

 mountains (which sometimes rise abruptly 1,300 feet), vegetation is prolific. Trees are not nu- 

 merous or large on these islands. ' A myrtaceous tree {Mutrosideros umbellatii) forms the larger 

 proportion of the wood near the sea, and intermixed with it grow an arborescent species of Dra- 

 cophyllum, several Coprosmas, frutescent Veronicas and Pana,r. Under these, and particularly 

 close to the sea-beach, many ferns abound ; conspicuous among them is a species with caulescent 

 or subarborescent stems half a foot and upwards in diameter, crowned with handsome spreading 

 tufts of fronds.' Higher up the sides of the mountains a beautiful alpine Flora makes its appear- 

 ance, and ' unrivalled in beauty by those of any other Antarctic country. Such are the species 

 of Gentian, and a Veronica with flowers of the intensest blue, several magnificent Composita:, a 

 Ranunculus, a Phyllachne, and a liliaceous plant, whose dense spikes of golden flowers are often 

 so abundant as to attract the eye from a considerable distance.' This plant is called Chrysohac- 

 tron Rossii ; such is its abundance that its flowers give a golden colour to the spots where they 

 grow, which may be seen at a distance of a mile from the shore. Dr. Hooker attributes the luxu- 

 riance of the vegetation in these islands to the equable climate they enjoy. For although this is 

 always inclement, and inhospitable to the human being, yet it seems one highly favourable to 

 plants. 



"The descriptions of the plants in this work are carefully drawn up, and much interesting 

 matter, critical, explanatory, and historical, is added in the form of notes. The drawings of the 

 plants are admirably executed, by Mr. Fitch ; and we know of no productions from his pencil, or 

 in fact any botanical illustrations at all, that are superior, in faithful representation and botanical 

 correctness. — Athenteum, 



