CORRESPONDENCE WITH HIS FAMILY. 99 



species of Cyperus grass. In the summer they generally go 

 naked, except a broad belt about their loins made of the outer 

 fibres of the cocoa nut, very neatly plaited; of these materials 

 they make their fishing lines, both here and in the tropical 

 isles. When they go upon an expedition or pay or receive 

 visits of compliment, the chieftains appear in handsome cloaks 

 ornamented with tufts of white dog's hair ; the materials of 

 which these cloaks are made are produced from a species of 

 Hexandria plant very common in New Zealand, something 

 resembling our hemp, but of a finer harl and much stronger, 

 and when wrought into garments is as soft as silk : if the 

 seeds of this plant thrive with us, as probably they will, this 

 will be perhaps the most useful discovery they made in the 

 whole voyage. But to return to our second room. Here is 

 likewise a large collection of insects, several fine specimens of 

 the bread and other fruits preserved in spirits ; together with 

 a compleat hortus siccus of all the plants collected in the 

 course of the voyage. The number of plants is about 3000, 

 110 of which are new genera, and 1300 new species which 

 were never seen or heard of before in Europe. What raptures 

 must they have felt to land upon countries where every thing 

 was new to them ! whole forests of nondescript trees clothed 

 with the most beautiful flowers and foliage, and these too 

 inhabited by several curious species of birds equally strangers 

 to them. I could be extravagant upon this topic ; but it is 

 time to pay our compliments to the third apartment. This 

 room contains an almost numberless collection of animals ; 

 quadrupeds, birds, fish, amphibia, reptiles, insects and vermes, 

 preserved in spirits, most of them new and nondescript. 

 Here I was lost in amazement, and cannot attempt any 

 particular description. Add to these the choicest collection 

 of drawings in Natural History that perhaps ever enriched 

 any cabinet, public or private: 987 plants drawn and coloured 

 by Parkinson ; and 1300 or 1400 more drawn with each of 

 them a flower, a leaf, and a portion of the stalk, coloured by 

 the same hand; beside a number of other drawings of animals, 

 birds, fish, &c. And what is more extraordinary still, all the 

 new genera and species contained in this vast collection are 



H 2 



