298 
Cook's VOYAGES. 
Smith (Records, p. 9) says :— 
* It was generally understood that the first New Holland plants introduced to this 
country were due to the е ч Captain Cook, between the years 1768 and 1780, 
but, according to Aiton’s ‘ Hort Kewensis,’ 1813, and an ‘ Addenda,’ 1814, I find . 
tr res, Casuarina 0 
and C. stricta, the first i 1, the second 1775, both of which were accredited to 
Sir Joseph Banks (then Mr. "Banka, who with Dr. Solander, was attached to Cook’s 
The object of og st voyage was to observe the Transit of Venus in 
1769 in the South 
Erasmus eum эм баці had Cook’s voyage in mind in writing 
rather turgid lines which are to be found in the fourth canto of t 
* Botanic Garden " published in 1791. 
z sits enthron'd in vegetable pride, 
mperial Kew by Thames' Glittering side, 
en ent sails from realms unfurrow'd bring, 
7 For her the anemic progeny of Spring, » 
Dalignted ба rie d tropic pat ч кы. 
And flowers Antarctic bending o’er his 
The New Zealand flax (Phormium tenax) was introduced in 
1789. 
Pun, has pereo. underrated the horticultural results of Cook's 
ical examin ation of the Hortus Kewensis would 
Londinensis а: ху.) Са E: за. dins commanded the ** Adventure 
is credited with the first Eucalyptus (E. obliqua), Sideroxylon sericeum 
and Leptospermum lanigerum. 
Tue ELDER Arrow. 
In 1789, Aiton published his * Hortus Kewensis" ; or a catalogue 
of the plants eultivated in the Royal Botanie рти at 
He describes himself as “Gardener to His Majesty,” to whom he 
dedicates “ this attempt to make public the present state of the Royal 
* Botanic Garden at Kew.” Не continues :— 
Small as the book appears, the карет of it has cost him а large portion 
of the leisure allowed by the iger he uties of his station during more than sixteen 
years; in all that time it has been thought worthy the assistance of men more 
Gai dun himself." 
According S. Scheer (p. 19) these were the Earl of T Sir 
oseph Banks те and Dryander, who was Banks librarian. 
John Smith (p. ч, вау 
“Tn this work 5,500 species are described and classified according to the Linnean 
та те ith the native country of each species, date of introduction, and by whom 
intr 
The few facts of William Aiton’s biography ently » recorded ; they 
are taken from a letter preserved in the Kew Libra 
* Не was born at Hamilton, in Lanarkshire, in 1731. He vm to England in 
1754, and was ves etna at Chelsea. In 1759 he was engaged o superintend v 
at Kew. In 176 See ae Ses. өс nted ie ‘Sir Joseph 
In 1783 he had brat of the pleasure and kitchen gardens at Kew. In 1789 he 
published his Hortus Kewensis. He died on “emas 2nd, 1799, i in his 63rd year." 
