BOTANICAL DISCOVERY. X1x 
of material; but no work has ever been published treating of them as a 
whole. The plants had for the most part been fully described by Sclander 
at the time of collection, and coloured drawings prepared of many of the 
species. Little additional labour was therefore required to prepare the 
results for publication. Evidently Banks intended that this should be 
done, for at his own expense he had 700 plates engraved on copper, and 
Solander’s manuscript descriptions were revised and systematically arranged. 
The New Zealand portion, which was entitled “ Primitiae Florae Novae- 
Zealandiae,”’ contaimed descriptions of nearly 360 species, Ulustrated by 
over 200 plates, and was practically ready for the press. Why it was not 
actually published is by no means clear, but the suggestion has been made 
that publication was at first delayed by the preparations made by Banks 
and Solander to accompany Cook in his second voyage, a project which 
was ultimately abandoned; and that a more serious interruption was 
caused by Solander’s somewhat sudden death in 1782. After his com- 
panion’s decease Banks became more and more occupied with his duties 
as President of the Royal Society, and as an organizer and promoter of 
scientific research, and the idea of publication appears to have been aban- 
doned. As stated in the preface, a typewritten copy of Solander’s descriptions 
and a set of impressions from the plates have been liberally furnished by the 
Trustees of the British Museum for use in the preparation of this work. 
Of their scientific value I cannot speak too highly; and it 1s a matter for 
regret that they were not presented to the world 125 years ago. It 1s, 
however: some satisfaction to know that the botanical results of the whole 
voyage are now, after this long delay, being issued under the auspices of 
the British Museum, and under the careful editing of Mr. Britten. 
On the 9th April, 1772, Cook left England for his second voyage, the 
expedition consisting of two ships, the ‘‘ Resolution’? under his own 
command, and the cE Adventure ’’ under that of Captain Furneaux. John 
Reinhold Forster and his son George Forster, both well-known botanists, 
accompanied him in the capacity of naturalists, and were joined at the 
Cape of Good Hope by Dr. Sparrmann, also a botanist of repute, and a 
former pupil of Linnaeus. After several months had been spent in an 
unsuccessful search for a southern continent Cook made sail for the south 
of New Zealand. During the voyage he was accidently separated from 
the “‘ Adventure’ and, failing to rejoin her, put into Dusky Sound, the 
entrance to which had been noticed in his first voyage. He remained 
there from the 26th March, 1773, to the 1st May, mainly for the purpose 
of refitting, and to give his crew a rest after the months of incessant 
buffeting experienced in high southern latitudes. During his stay many 
boat voyages were made to various parts of the Sound, and a careful survey 
was made of it. The two Forsters devoted much of their time to botanizing, 
but their collections were by no means so large as might have been expected, 
considering what a productive locality Dusky Sound has proved to be in 
later years. Among the plants gathered were Olearia operina, Celmisia 
holosericea, Gentiana saxosa and G. montana, and Cordyline indwisa. 
From Dusky Sound the “ Resolution ” proceeded northwards to Queen 
Charlotte Sound, which was reached on the 18th May. Here she rejoined 
the “‘ Adventure,” which had arrived on the 7th April. Both vessels left 
on the 7th June, in the first place for a cruise to the south-east of New 
Zealand, in further search for a southern continent, and then for eastern 
Polynesia. In October Cook again directed bis course to New Zealand. 
Making the coast of the North Island near Table Cape, he steered to the 
