xxii HISTORY OF 
investigate the flora of the eastern side of the South Island, many of 
his plants were altogether new. Raoul first of all published his dis- 
coveries in the “‘ Annales des Sciences Naturelles ” (Series III., Vol. ii.), 
but subsequently he prepared a work of wider scope under the name 
of ‘ Choix de Plantes de la Nouvelle Zélande,” illustrated with thirty 
beautiful plates. In it he reprints the descriptions previously pub- 
lished in the Annales, and gives an enumeration of the known species 
of the flora, including about 950 species, of which rather more 
than 500 are flowering-plants. But he accepted all Cunningham’s 
species, many of which were not well founded, and also included no 
small number of synonyms and introduced plants. If these are elimi- 
nated, his list will be reduced to under 800. Raoul’s services to New 
Zealand botany have been well commemorated in the genus Raoula, 
dedicated to him by Sir J. D. Hooker. 
In the year 1837 an elaborately organized expedition, consisting 
of the corvettes ‘‘ Astrolabe’ and “‘ Zélée,’’ under the command of 
Admiral D’Urville, was despatched by the French Government for the 
purpose of exploration in the Antarctic regions. The expedition visited 
the Auckland Islands during 1839, when M. Hombron, who acted as 
botanist, made a collection of plants, the first formed in the locality. 
The official record of the voyage, which appeared under the title of 
“ Voyage au Péle Sud et dans |’Océanie,” contains a folio atlas of 
botanical plates prepared under the direction of M. Hombron, and two 
volumes of descriptive matter; one including the Cryptogamia, by 
Montaigne, the other the phenogams, by Decaisne. Drawings and 
descriptions were given of several species from the Auckland Islands ; 
but all, or nearly all, had been already described in Hooker’s Flora 
Antarctica, presently to be alluded to. 
About the same period, the well-known American Explormg Ex- 
pedition, under the command of Captain Wilkes, visited both the Bay 
of Islands and the Auckland Islands. Several naturalists were attached 
to the expedition, and collections of considerable importance were 
formed. After Wilkes’s return, and after many delays, the botanical 
collections were intrusted to the eminent American botanist, Asa 
Gray. An account of the phenogams ultimately appeared (in 1854) 
in two volumes quarto, with a folio atlas of 100 plates. The number of 
New Zealand plants enumerated is not large, but Asa Gray’s critical 
and descriptive remarks are in many cases of considerable value. 
We now arrive at the Antarctic Expedition of Sir James Clark 
Ross, which left England in September, 1839, for the purpose of in- 
vestigating the phenomena of terrestrial magnetism in high southern 
latitudes, and of prosecuting geographical discovery in the Antarctic 
regions. It consisted of two vessels, the ‘“‘ Erebus,” commanded by 
Ross, and the “ Terror,” under Captain Crozier. To the first-mentioned 
vessel Dr. (now Sir J. D.) Hooker was attached as assistant surgeon 
and naturalist, whilst Dr. Lyall served in a similar capacity on the 
