INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 11 
which it was prepared) a national loss, and to science a grievous one, since, had it been otherwise, 
the botany of New Zealand would have been better known fifty years ago than it now is*. 
Captain Cook was, on his second voyage, accompanied by three scientific men, all more or less con- 
versant with botany, namely, the two Forsters (father and son), and Dr. Sparrmann, who joined the 
expedition at the Cape of Good Hope. Queen Charlotte’s Sound, in Cook’s Straits, and Dusky 
Bay were the chief points botanized. From the former, as it had been previously explored by Banks 
and Solander, little novelty was to be expected, and from the latter, which has lately proved so rich 
in interesting plants, little, comparatively speaking, was brought. About 160 species of flowering 
plants and Ferns were collected in all, and these were (often inaccurately named) distributed amongst 
many public and private Museums. I have examined a set in the Paris Museum, another in the 
Banksian, and a third in my father’s}, and in these collections the same plant has sometimes different 
names; this has given rise to much confusion and synonymy, and false identification of the plants 
published in the ‘Nova Genera Plantarum’ and ‘ Prodromus Flore Insularum Australium.” The 
latter work contains descriptions of 150 New Zealand species; these are supposed to have been ela- 
borated by Dr. Sparrmann, and even for the period are very unsatisfactory. Forster’s * Commen- 
tatio de Plantis esculentis insularum Oceani Australis? contains better descriptions, and much curious 
information on the few edible plants of the islandst. Mr. Anderson, surgeon to Cook’s third expedi- 
tion, undertook the botanical department on that voyage; but though Dusky Bay was visited a second 
time, nothing of importance was added to its botany. It remained for Mr. Menzies, the surgeon and 
naturalist of Captain Vancouver’s voyage, to discover the cryptogamic riches of New Zealand, and 
especially those of Dusky Bay. That naturalist devoted himself to the collection of Mosses and 
Hepatic, and this at a time when these objects were scarcely thought worthy of attention, and their 
structure and functions little known or understood. Most of his collections were placed in Sir Wil- 
liam Hooker's hands, and many of them were beautifully illustrated in the * Musci Exotici^ 
For upwards of twenty years after Cook's voyage New Zealand remained unvisited by any natu- 
ralist, until Captain Duperrey's expedition in the French surveying corvette the Coquille, in 1822, 
when he was accompanied by a young officer of great promise, and an ardent collector of plants, the 
late Admiral D’Urville. This officer revisited New Zealand in 1827, in the same ship (re-named the 
* This herbarium and MS. form part of the Banksian collection, and are deposited in the British Museum. I 
feel that I cannot over-estimate the benefit which I have derived from these materials, and it is much to be re- 
gretted that they were not duly consulted by my predecessors. The names by which Dr. Solander designated the 
species have been in most cases replaced by others, often applied with far less judgment, and his descriptions have 
never been surpassed for fulness, terseness, and accuracy. The total number of drawings of New Zealand plants is 
about 219, of which 176 are engraved on copper, but the engravings have never been published ; these treasures 
are accompanied with 24 additional copper-plates from Forster's drawings, of plants which were not found during 
Cook's first voyage. 
+ This was presented by the late Mr. Shepherd, of Liverpool, and formed part of what I believe is a very 
complete collection of Forster's plants. I have to add with regret that the trustees of the institution to which the 
latter belongs considered it inexpedient to accede to my request that it should be transmitted temporarily to Kew 
for comparison and publication. 
+ Solanum aviculare, Coriaria sarmentosa, Convolvulus chrysorhizus (cult.), Dioscorea alata (cult.), drum escu- 
lentum. (cult.), A. macrorhizon (cult.), Cordyline indivisa, Areca sapida, Apium graveolens, Tetragonia expansa, Lepi- 
dium oleraceum, Sonchus oleraceus, Pteris esculenta, Cyathea medullaris, Gleichenia sp. (Polypodium dichotomum), 
Leptospermum scoparium, Dacrydium cupressinum. Tt is in this work that the Avicennia tomentosa is described as 
A. resinifera, with the statement recorded by Crozet of its producing a gum which is eaten by the natives, which no 
doubt originated in some mistake. 
52 
