xxvi 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 toa 
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 1782, 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 
