XXIV HISTORY OF 
wider scope under the name of ‘‘ Choix de Plantes de la Nouvelle Zélande,”’ 
illustrated with thirty beautiful plates. In it he reprints the descriptions 
previously published in the Annales, and gives an enumeration of the known 
species of the flora. including about 950 species, of which rather more 
than 500 are flowering-plants. But he accepted all Cunningham’s species, 
many of which were not well founded, and also included no small number 
of synonyms and introduced plants. If these are eliminated his list will 
be reduced to under 800. Raoul’s services to New Zealand botany have 
been well commemorated in the genus Raoulia, dedicated to him by Sir 
J. D. Hooker. 
In the year 1837 an elaborately organized expedition, consisting of the 
corvettes “ Astrolabe” and * Zélée,’”’ under the command of Admiral 
D’Urville, was despatched by the French Government for the purpose of 
exploration in the Antarctic regions. The expedition visited the Auckland 
Islands during 1839, when M. Hombron, who acted as botanist, made a 
collection of plants, the first formed in the locality. The official record 
of the voyage, which appeared under the title of “‘ Voyage au Pole Sud et 
dans l’Océanie,”” cortains a folio atlas of botanical plates prepared under 
the direction of M. Hombron, and two volumes of descriptive matter; one 
including the Cryptogamia, by Montaigne, the other the phaenogams, by 
Decaisne. Drawings and descriptions were given of several species from 
the Auckland Islands; but all, or nearly all, had been already described 
i Hooker’s “ Flora Antarctica,” presently to be alluded to. 
About the same period the well-known American Exploring Expedition, 
under the command of Captain Wilkes, visited both the Bay of Islands 
and the Auckland Islands. Several naturalists were attached to the 
expedition, and collections of considerable importance were formed. After 
Wilkes’s return, and after many delays, the botanical collections were 
entrusted to the eminent American botanist, Asa Gray. An account of 
the phaenogams ultimately appeared (in 1854) in two volumes quarto, with 
a folio atlas of 100 plates. The number of New Zealand plants enumerated 
is not large, but Asa Gray’s critical and descriptive remarks are in many 
cases of considerable value. 
We now arrive at the Antarctic Expedition of Sir James Clark Ross, 
which leit England in September, 1839, for the purpose of investigating 
the phenomena of terrestrial magnetism :in high southern latitudes, and 
of prosecuting geographical discovery in the Antarctic regions. It 
consisted of two vessels, the “ Erebus,” commanded by Ross, and the 
“ Terror,’ under Captain Crozier. To the first-mentioned vessel Dr. 
(now Sir J. D.) Hooker was attached as assistant surgeon and naturalist, 
whilst Dr. Lyall served in a similar capacity on the ‘“ Terror.” After 
calling at the Cape of Good Hope, Kerguelen Island, and Tasmania, the 
expedition arrived at the Auckland Islands on the 20th November, 1840, 
remaining until the 12th December. On the 13th December it reached 
Campbell Island, leaving again on the 17th for a cruise to the Antarctic 
Circle and the south polar regions. Although the Auckland Islands had 
been visited by D’Urville and Wilkes the previous year, nothing had been 
published respecting the vegetation, and with characteristic ardour Hooker 
devoted himself to its exploration. The luxuriance of the flora and the 
relatively large proportion of plants with brilliant and conspicuous flowers 
at once attracted attention. Hooker goes so far as to say, when writing 
of Bulbinella Rossi, “* Perhaps no group of islands on the surface of the 
globe, of the same limited extent and so perfectly isolated, can boast of 
