Forster Collections
"Pl. 10. Plante à Thé de la Nouvelle Zélande"
This engraving is from the 1778 edition, a re-engraving of t. 22 in the original 1777 edition.
Forster Collections from the Second Cook Expedition:
Dr. F.R. Fosberg (1908-1993) accumulated a lot of information on the whereabouts (approx. 28 herbaria) and the identity of the specimens which underlie hundreds of Forster names (cf. Allertonia 7:41-86, 1993 for Fosberg's precursor). These Forster names are the underpinning of Pacific botany. Dr. Dan H. Nicolson is getting Fosberg's work into publishable form so that workers can carry on where Fosberg left off. As of October 1999 the work has been completed but Dr. Dan H. Nicolson (Curator) would be happy to hear of any new information or share what he has about the species of plants collected by the Forsters.
Dr. Nicolson (in Taxon 47: 581-591. 1998) ennumerated all known published Forster artwork, the 78 plates of the 1775/1776 J. R. & G. Forster Characteres genera plantarum (life-size floral dissections and rather unappealing) and 12 nice plates in various periodical publications. He overlooked five unattributed G. Forster botanical plates that appear in Cook (1777). These were re-engraved and renumbered in the 1778 French edition. The lack of attribution is obvious since the works by William Hodges (scenes) were attributed to that artist. The omission of attribution is undoubtedly part of the decision of the head of the Admiralty, the Earl of Sandwich, not to honor the commitment to have Cook and J. R. Forster produce a jointly authored "Voyage". The Admiralty went ahead and used George Forster's artwork of plants, birds, animals and artifacts but made them anonymous. The five G. Forster plates with botanical elements are: (1) t. 22 - Tea plant of New Zealand, Leptospermum scoparium (Myrtaceae) (drawing at left), (2) t. 24 - Plant used at Otaheite to catch fish by intoxication Barringtonia asiatica (Lecythidaceae), (3) t. 51 - Spruce fir of New Zealand, Dacrydium cupressinum (Podocarpaceae), (4) t. 52 - New Zealand flax, Phormium tenax (Liliaceae), and (5) t. 53 - Poe bird of New Zealand, sitting on a flowering branch of Fuchsia excorticata (Onagraceae).
Citations:
Cook, J. 1777. A voyage toward the South Pole and round the world, performed in His Majesty's Ships the Resolution and Adventure in the years 1772, 1773, 1774, and 1775. 2 folio vols. London: Strahan & Cadell.
--. 1778. Voyage dans l'hémisphère austral, et autour du monde, fait sur les vaisseaux de Roi, l'Aventure, & la Résolution, en 1772, 1773, 1774 & 1775. Paris: Hôtel de Thou. 4 vols.
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