li O T A N V. 



29 



Venezuela, ilif primary object, of lib attention ap- 

 ; have bc;-n the i -n of tlie Caribbean 



' a great . 



of advantage from the publication of hi* discove- 

 ries. Professor Swart/, who followed him in 17< s :', 

 d* u>ted the three years of his continuance in that 

 quai-i'. r of the world almost solely to the business of 

 invalidating the flora of the islands, and particular- 

 ly of those of them which go mider tin- name of the 

 great Antilles, Jamaica, Cuba, and Hiapaaiob : 

 on hi n turn to Europe in 1788, he proceeded firs.t 

 to communicate some account of the general result of 

 his, inquiries and observations, in a work entitled, Xnya 

 <r<->ifi-a cl ,uv/>.< Plantiirii >i ; .-fit Prodromus descrip- 

 tioiuini vegfta/ii/ium, m.iximam pnrtem incogititorum, 

 quit; ,*/<[> itincrt: in Indiam Occidrntalem an, us 1783-7 

 digetsit. Six years afterwards, he began to publish a 

 series of coloured engravings illustrative of his disco- 

 veries, but was somehow prevented from continuing 

 them ; and since that time, he has done a. most ac- 

 ceptable service to tlu- lovers of botanical knowledge, 

 by laying the information which he had acquired 

 wit'.i reaped to the West Indian flora, more fully 

 and correctly before them, in a work of first rate au- 

 thority in ."> vols. which he has entitled, Flora Indue 

 Occidentals nuclei attjue iliustrata sive description^ 

 Plantarnm in I'rodromo recemitarum. We are also 

 much indebted to professor Vahl, for having charac- 

 terised, in his Ecclogce Americana, published within 

 these few years, a great many unknown plants from 

 different parts of America, but especially from the 

 West Indies, where his friends Rohr, Ryan, and 

 West, had collected and sent them to him. 



Nor cm we forbear to mention with due praise 

 the name of Despc-rtes, a Frenchman, who exerted 

 himself, at an earlier period, though in a more limit- 

 ed way, to ascertain and communicate something 

 with respect to the indigenous flora of St Domingo ; 

 but particularly that of Dr William Wright, F. R. S. 

 of Edinburgh, already noticed, who employed himself 

 in the most laudable manner, during a residence of 

 many years as physician in" Jamaica, in collecting 

 plants, to the number of 2000 species, most of which 

 he gave to Sir Joseph Banks, :n whose collection Pro- 

 fessor Swartz had an opportunity of seeing them, 

 on his return from his voyage to the West Indies, 

 and consequently before he wrote his Prodromus and 

 Flora, containing descriptions of those specimens of 

 them which he had gathered himself. We are also 

 under no small obligation to Dr Wright, for having 

 furnished us with an account of the medicinal plants 

 growing in Jamaica, which will be found in the 8th 

 volume of the London Medical Jeurual. We may 

 just add, that Dr Alexander Anderson, F. R.S. E. 

 Superiiitendant of the Royal Garden, St Vincents, 

 and William Lcchead, Esq. formerly of Trinidad, 

 and nov.- of Dominica, have lor.g been engaged in 

 preparing materials for a Flora Occidentalism 



It now only remains that we should briefly trace 

 the progress of botanical discovery in New Holland, 

 and the other South Sea Islands ; and in doing to, it 

 will not be HL-O ssaiy that we should go b; ek I i-youd 

 the da?'- (<' i , as these 



islands v , wholly ui or, at best, 



cry little investigated in u scientific point of view. 



The honour of visiting part of them for tin- liv.t I! 

 time in the character of botanists and philosophical * v ' 

 observers, is due to Sir Joseph^ then Mr Banks, and sir Jov|,)i 

 Dr Solander ; the first of whom, in particular, though It.mks and' 

 born to an ample fortune, and surrounded with all the "' ^olaiu 

 attractions of friendship, did not hesitate to quit the 

 scenes of domestic ease and plenty, and brave every 

 form of danger, that he might have it in his power at 

 once to gratify his own thirst for knowledge, and add 

 to the sum of general discovery. 



These two gentlemen having sailed from Plymouth 

 with Captain Cook, in the month of August 1769, 

 embraced every opportunity which presented itself 

 in the course of their voyage, to procure information 

 relative to the different branches of natural history, 

 and particularly to botany : and so well did they suc- 

 ceed in their object, that on their return to England 

 in the summer of 1771, after having explored the So- 

 ciety Islands, where they remained some time, and 

 visited New Zealand, the eastern coast of New Hol- 

 land, and part of New Guinea, they brought along 

 with them a rich harvest of r.e.v plants, which now 

 form a part of that vast collection, which Sir Joseph 

 Banks has long spared no trouble or expence in en- 

 riching by additions procured from every quarter of' 

 the globe. And although we have to regret that 

 little has been hitherto published on the subject, we 

 cannot but indulge the hope, that this distinguished 

 naturalist, and munificent patron of science, will one 

 day gratify the world, by putting them in possession 

 of his own discoveries and those of his deceased friend, 

 as well as of the more rare and interesting part of 

 that ample treasure which he has had the merit of 

 bringing together. 



In his second voyage, which lasted from the month 

 of July 1772 till July 1775, and afforded a still more 

 extensive range for research, Captain Cook was ac- 

 companied, as we have hinted elsewhere, by John j. R. For- 

 Reinhold Forster, late professor at Halle, and his ster. 

 son George Forster, librarian and private counsellor C*e<>. For* 

 at Mentz, two botanists of no mean fame and expe- 8tcr ' 

 rience, who succeeded, like their predecessors, in ma- 

 king a great many discoveries : and of these, part 

 were communicated to the public by John Forater 

 the year after their return, in his Charactered gene- 

 rum Plantarum, quas in itinere ad insttlas Starts 

 Australis colle^it, and part by his son, in his Planter 

 esculentte insularum Oceani Australis, and Vlnrulae in- 

 sit/arum Australitim Prodromus, which appeared in 

 1786. 



Since the date of these publications, our knowledge 

 of the indigenous flora of the South Sea Islands has 

 remained nearly as it was, except in so far as New 

 Holland is concerned. This extensive and interesting 

 country, where both the animal and vegetable king- 

 dom are, in many instances, marked by a peculiarity 

 of feature, has not ceased from the time when it was 

 first visited by Captain Cook, to be an object of at- 

 tention ; and various attempts have been made to- 

 w.uds exploring it. Botanists have been sent thither 

 at different times from this country, under the pa- 

 tronage of his Majesty and Sir Ji Banks, for the pur- 

 pose of collecting new plants, who have transmitted' 

 home a considerable number, either in a live or dried 

 state,. part of which have been already described and 



