BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 



amount of material, the botanical part of which was for the 

 most part already described, and needed but little to pre- 

 pare it for the press. The descriptive tickets, which had 

 been drawn up by Solander, were arranged in systematic 

 order in what are still known as "Solander cases," and 

 transcribed fairly by an amanuensis for publication. About 

 700 plates were engraved on copper in folio at Banks's ex- 

 pense, and a few prints or proofs were taken, but they were 

 never published. Five folio books of neat manuscript, and 

 the coppers, rest in the hands of the trustees of the British 

 Museum. The question arises, why were they never 

 utilised ? The descriptions were ready long before Solander's 

 death, although the plants collected in Australia do not 

 seem to have been added to the fair copies, and the plates 

 were mainly outlines. This has always been regarded as an 

 insoluble problem, but the following extracts from a letter 

 written by Banks very shortly before Solander died, may 

 be accepted as evidence of his intention to publish. The 

 letter from which the extract is taken is undated, and takes 

 the shape of a draft without any name, but it is a reply to a 

 letter addressed to Banks by Hasted, who was then collect- 

 ing materials for the second edition of his history of the 

 county of Kent. 



Botany has been my favourite science since my childhood ; and the 

 reason I have not published the account of my travels is that the first 

 from want of time necessarily brought on by the many preparations for 

 my second voyage was entrusted to Dr. Hawkesworth, and since that 

 I have been engaged in a botanical work, which I hope soon to publish, 

 as I have near 700 folio plates prepared ; it is to give an account of 

 all such new plants discovered in my voyage round the world, some- 

 what above 800. 



Hasted's letter, to which this is an answer, was dated 

 25th February 1*782, little more than two months before 

 Solander's death (alluded to on a subsequent page), an event 

 which has generally been accepted as determining the fate 

 of the intended publication. 



But we must now go back a few years. In 1772 pre- 

 parations were made for a second expedition under Cook in 



