490 Account of the Tetragonia, or New Zealand Spinach. 



which was introduced by Sir Joseph Banks, as appears by 

 his edition of the Systema Vegetabilium* published in 1784 : 

 the specific name of expansa w T as, however, retained, as 

 having been the first printed, and for the same reason con- 

 tinues to be used. Professor Pallas had previously, in 

 1781,-f published a description and figure of it under ano- 

 ther name : he found it in the garden of Count Demidof at 

 Moscow, where it had been received from Baron Jacquin 

 of Vienna, as Tetragonia cornuta ; Pallas conceiving it to 

 be a new Genus, had called it Demidovea Tetragonoides ; 

 but as he appears to have been wrong in supposing it dis- 

 tinct from Tetragonia, his name has of course been discon- 

 tinued. 



The value of the plant became more known in Captain 

 Cook's second voyage ; Forster, who went with that expe- 

 dition, found it also at Queen Charlotte's Sound, in great 

 abundance, in 1773, and during the stay of the ships at that 

 place, the sailors were daily supplied with it at their meals. 

 He also met with it in the same year, on the shores of Ton- 

 gatabu, one of the Friendly Islands. The inhabitants of 

 these countries did not appear to eat it, or to know its good 

 qualities. Forster, in the original drawings of his plants, 

 which are preserved in the Banksian Library, as well as in 

 his publications^ after his return, named it Tetragonia Ilali- 

 mifolia, though the younger Forster, in his § account of 



* Linn. Syst. Veg. edit. 14. a Murray, page 467- 

 f Pallas, Hortus Demidov. Appendix, page 150, plate 1. 

 X See Forster Prodromus Flor. Insul. Austral, page 223 ; and Forster de 

 Plantis esculentis Insul. Ocean. Austral, page 67, 

 § Forsters Voyage, vol. i. page 200. 



