Hin JOSEPH BAXKS. 
6 
Hooker’s account supplements the above somewhat. 
Ill .Inly, 1771, the travellers (Hanks and party from voyage in “ Endeavour”) 
returned with an immense amount of material, the botanical part of which was 
for the most jiart already described, and needed but little to j)repare it for the press. 
The descriptive tickets, which had been drawn up by iSolaiifler, were arranged in 
systematic order in what are still known as “ .Solander eases,” and transcribed 
fairly by an amanuensis for judilication. .About 700 jilates were engraved on 
ro])|)er in folio at Hanks’ expense, and a few prints or proofs were taken, but they 
were never published. Five folio books of neat manuscript, and the cojuiers, 
rest in the hands of the Trustees of the Hritish Museum. The question arises, 
why they were never utilised? The descriiitions were ready long liefore .Solander’s 
death, although the jdants collected in .Australia do not seem to have been added 
to the fair copies, and the ]>latcs were mainly outlines.* This has always been 
regarded as an insoluble ])roblem, but the following extracts from a letter written 
by Hanks very shortly before Holander died, maj- be accejited 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, hut it is a reply to a letter addre.ssed 
to Hanks by Hasted, who was then collecting materials for the second edition of 
his history of the countj' of Kent. 
Hotany has been niy 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 prejiarations for my second voyage, 
was entrusted to Dr. Hawkesworth, and since that I have lieen engaged 
in a botanical work, which I hope soon to publish, as I have near 700 folio 
plates jirepared ; it is to give an account of all such new jilants discovered 
in my voyage round the world, somewhat above 800. 
Hasted’s letter, to which this is an answer, was dated 2oth February, 1782, 
little more than two months before Solander’s death, an event which has generally 
been acce))ted as determining the fate of the intemled publication. (“ Banks’ 
Journal ” Hooker, xxv.) 
Besides the drawings executed by various artists for the original sketches made 
by Sydney Parkinson during Cook’s First A’oj'age, which were engraved on cojjper 
aiul are now being issued by the British Museum, there are several which were not 
engraved. Some of these are merely sketches by Parkinson; of others there are 
also finished drawings, many of ecpial interest wit i those engraved. The Museum 
publication, save in one or two cases of exceptional importance, onh' reproduces 
the engraved plates; but among those of which only the drawings exist are some 
which are w dl worth publidiing, as they represent species which have not been 
met with .since Banks’ time, and of which no other figures e.xist; one such, Drosera 
Banksii,^ was reproduced last year in this journal (t. 410 B, fig. B.). 
Among them are five finished drawings of figs, made by F. P. Xodder from 
Parkinson’s sketches, to which .Mr. Britten directed my attention while I was 
elaborating the Moracece of the Welwitsch collection. The specimens collected bv 
Banks and Solander ar ■ in the National Herbarium, and as two out of the five 
a|)i)arently have not been described, it may be worth while to publish some account 
of the series. Of the two in question, 1 have drawn up descriptions, based upon 
the specimens and figures, in which 1 have availed myself of certain details from 
Solander’s MSS.; of the three previously known species I have quoted Solander’s 
description, in accordance with the ))lan adopted by Mr. Britten in the “ Illustra- 
tions of the Botany of Cook’s A’oyage.” (“Banks and Solander’s .Australian 
Figs,’’ bv \\ . P. Hiern, in Journ. Bot., xxxix, HlOl. p. 1). 
* A statement made from memory and not correct. 
t See “ On Drosera Banksii," R. Br., by Dr. .A. Morrison. Trans. : and Proc. Bot. Soc., Edin.. 
xxiii, 114-8 (1905). 
