Endeavour on the first Pacific expedition of 1768 to 1771. On his return to England, Solander helped Banks collate what is now known as Banks’ Florilegium. While at Teoneroa (Poverty Bay) he and Banks gathered almost 60 plant species, including the now familiar trees and shrubs: karaka, ngaio, kowhai (Sophora tetraptera), koromiko, and flax (Phormium tenax). An important part of Solander’s legacy is his manuscripts, 20 of which are in the British Museum. This copy is from his unpublished Primitiae Florae Novae Zelandiae [1770], the first documented list of the flora of New Zealand. Solander used Linnaeus’ binomial classification system (the Latin two-word tags) to classify the plants.]]> Daniel Solander]]> Endeavour, Banks kept a journal that vividly records his visits to Brazil, Tierra del Fuego, Tahiti, New Zealand and Australia. Botany was one of Banks’ passions and throughout the text he makes mention of plants discovered, and the exacting process of collecting, collating, and storing the specimens for the long trip home. This edition, the first full publication of the Journal, also contains illustrations by Sydney Parkinson, Banks’ botanical draughtsman. Here is the colourful kaka beak (Clianthus puniceus), which has a note on the back of the original sketch reading: ‘The capsula a bright yellow green’.]]> Joseph Banks]]> Phormium tenax and Phormium cookianum, known as harakeke and wharariki respectively) for medicinal purposes and for rope-making and matting. Early European visitors such as Banks also realised the potential of the plant, especially its usefulness in rope-making. Painter William Hodges (1744-1797) accompanied Cook on his second voyage to the Pacific. Although renowned for his landscape paintings, Hodges also executed botanical drawings like this flax illustration for Cook’s A Voyage towards the South Pole (1777).]]> James Cook]]> Dracophyllum menziesii (dragon leaf) and Nothofagus (Lophozonia) menziesii (silver beech).]]> George Vancouver]]> Lepidium oleraceum) in Dunedin in December 1951. Because of its antiscorbutic properties, Cook also used it to ward off scurvy.]]> Professor Geoff Baylis]]> ]]> Flora Novae-Zelandiae (1852-1855), which, along with Flora Antarctica (1844-47) and Flora Tasmaniae (1853–59), formed the ‘Antarctic’ publications, the culmination of his botanical work during the years of the expedition, 1839-1843. The New Zealand volumes – a milestone publication of modern systematic botany – described and illustrated some 1,767 species of plants. The illustration of Clematis colensoi (now C. forsteri) was by the botanical artist Walter Hood Fitch.]]> Joseph Dalton Hooker]]> Handbook of the New Zealand Flora (1864), a ‘compendious’ and more compact account of the plants of New Zealand. This publication, however, was imperfect, with descriptions lacking to some flowering plants, and meagre sketches of fungi and crustaceous lichens. This copy is particularly significant as it once belonged to Sir James Hector (1834-1907), geologist, surgeon, and one of Hooker’s correspondents. The annotations – some extensive on the interleaved blue paper – are by John Buchanan – and are excellent examples of ‘Buchanan on Hooker’.]]> Joseph Dalton Hooker]]> Erebus as part of Captain James Clark Ross’s Antarctica expedition, 1839-1843. By his travels and publications such as The Botany of the Antarctic Voyage of H.M. Discovery-Ships Erebus and Terror in 1839–1843 (1844–60); Rhododendrons of Sikkim Himalaya (1849); The Flora of British India (1872–97); Handbook of the New Zealand Flora (1864); and Journal of a Tour in Marocco and the Great Atlas (1878), Hooker built up a solid scientific reputation. In 1855 he succeeded his father, William Jackson Hooker, as Director of the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew. In 1873 he was President of the Royal Society. He was also great friends with Charles Darwin.]]> Unknown]]> Album to be a work of ‘national importance’ and they set out ‘to prove how fallacious and incorrect’ the belief was that there were ‘no flowers in New Zealand’. Sarah was an accomplished artist and painted all 40 plates which Edward furnished with his equally florid text. In the frontispiece, here, the ripe red berries of the Ripogonum scandens (supplejack) sit top left; the pink and white blooms of the Vitex littoralis (puriri) lay amongst the foliage in the middle; the long, dark, plum-coloured fruit of the Beilschmiedia tawa (tawa) dangle middle right; and the eye-catching Clianthus puniceus or kaka beak appears in the middle front.]]> E. H. Featon]]> Contributions was a summation of his four month visit to the province. Aciphylla colensoi (above) (Gr. acicula – needle; phylla – leaf) is commonly known as giant speargrass. This evergreen’s foliage is sharp and spiky, and its growth widespread.]]> William Lauder Lindsay]]> Contributions to New Zealand Botany.]]> William Lauder Lindsay]]> Otago Daily Times and the Otago Witness as a proof-reader. In 1871, he suggested that ‘gentlemen [who] associated for the purpose of studying the natural history of the district surrounding Dunedin’ should form an interest group. The first field trip to the Leith Valley took place in September. In October 1872 the first official meeting of the Dunedin Naturalists’ Field Club (DNFC) was held at the Otago Museum. J. S. Webb was duly elected first president, and the rules were decided upon; one of which was ‘Ladies are eligible for membership’.]]> Unknown]]> Fungus Hunting, which she also illustrated, she describes her travels to beech forests, sand hills and manuka groves in Otago, where she finds ‘creamy-coloured Clavarias, the scarlet-capped Secotium, [and] the red convoluted stalkless Paurocotylis.’]]> H. K. Dalrymple]]> Unknown]]> Otago Daily Times. Republished in 1962 to coincide with the 90th anniversary of the DNFC, the booklet was rewritten again in 1994 by Dr Ralph Allen ‘to bring the plant nomenclature up to date and take account of the changed nature…of Dunedin’s natural surroundings’. Dr Allen (b. 1948) graduated from the University of Otago with a PhD in Botany and worked for the DSIR and Landcare Research. He was instrumental in the establishment of the Orokonui Ecosanctuary in Dunedin. Both men were Loder Cup winners: Martin (1960); Allen (2012).]]> Ralph Allen]]> Botanical Society of Otago]]> Otago Daily Times]]> Otago Daily Times]]> A Manual of the Grasses and Forage-plants Useful to New Zealand (1887) from the author Thomas Mackay. Reviews of the day stressed the handy format and low price of Mackay’s useful guide, and remarked that if not found in every home in the country, it should be in every rural library. Mackay wanted to improve the quality of colour reproductions – like the white turnip (Brassica rapa) here – and asked Buchanan for a solution.]]> Thomas MacKay]]> The Indigenous Grasses of New Zealand.]]> John Buchanan]]> The Indigenous Grasses of New Zealand (1878). Here is an illustration of bush rice grass (Microlaena avenacea) from his ground-breaking publication.]]> John Buchanan]]> The Naturalisation of Plants and Animals in New Zealand, in which he described over 1,200 introduced species. In 1882, he capitalised on the fern craze (Pteridomania) and produced one of the first succinct and useful accounts of ferns in New Zealand, describing some 145 species. Thomson was also a prime mover in establishing a marine research station, which was eventually housed at Portobello on the Otago Peninsula. This particular copy of Ferns and Fern Allies was owned by John Buchanan.]]> George M. Thomson]]> Botany Department]]> J. E. Holloway]]> Pteridophyta (ferns, clubmosses, etc) gained him world-wide recognition. However, the conditions he faced when he started were far from ideal: one room in the basement of the Otago Museum, which served as lecture theatre, laboratory, and office. Other resources were just as scarce. As sole member of staff he undertook all duties: collecting, preparing and displaying class material (so-called ‘lab boy duties’), administration, teaching at all levels, and research support. Here he is in a pensive mood, relaxing in the Botanic Garden of the Museum grounds.]]> Unknown]]> Botany Department]]>