FIRST BOTANICAL EXPEDITION IN NEW ZEALAND. 3 
the pohutukawas of the northern cliffs had been each summer a 
crimson glory, and at the margin of the swamps the lurid blossoms 
of the flax had attracted countless bell-birds and tuis with their 
nectar. 
Kven from boyhood Banks had shown much taste for natural 
history. The story goes that, walking along an English lane gay 
with wild flowers, he exclaimed, ‘‘ How beautiful! It is surely more 
natural that I should be taught to know all these productions of 
nature in preference to Latin and Greek!” From that time onwards 
natural science was his occupation, and during a long lifetime he 
devoted his wealth and energies to its advancement. Thus it was 
that, at his own expense, he presided over the natural-history 
investigations of Captain Cook’s ever-famous first voyage, accom- 
panying that illustrious navigator, and taking as his colleague 
Dr. Solander, as well as several ‘assistants. 
Banks and Solander, whose names are always bracketed together 
in New Zealand botany, investigated only a comparatively few places 
on the coast. These were: Queen Charlotte Sound and Admiralty 
Bay, in the South Island; and, in the North Island, Poverty Bay, 
Tolaga Bay, Anaura, Mercury Bay, the Thames River (near its mouth), 
and the Bay of Islands. They collected in all 360 species of seed-— 
plants and ferns, a remarkably large collection considering the diffi- 
culties they had to encounter—a land without roads, and Natives 
who at any moment might prove hostile. One of their “ finds” 
deserves a passing word. This is the beautiful shrubby groundsel 
(Senecio perdicioides), which they collected at Tolaga Bay, but of 
which no other specimens were gathered for more than a hundred 
years. But now, since its rediscovery some time ago, it has been 
introduced into cultivation, and may be admired in many gardens. 
Banks caused about two hundred fine folio copperplate engrav- 
ings to be prepared, and descriptions of more than three hundred 
plants were written by Solander. Plates and descriptions both are 
preserved in the British Museum, but, marvellous to relate, they 
have never been published ! 
Sir Joseph Banks’s explorations in the vast unknown lands of 
the south spurred him on to fresh exertions. He accordingly made 
arrangements to jom Cook’s second voyage, which was to leave 
England in 1772, the Government accepting his services, as well it 
might. So extensive were the preparations he made that, his wealth 
