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Antiaris macrophylla.

Authors :
Flinders, Matthew, 1774-1814
Bauer, Ferdinand, 1760-1826
Publication Year :
1814
Publisher :
G. & W. Nicol, 1814.

Abstract

Botanical illustration of the Antiaris tree by Ferdinand Bauer, who illustrated the plants collected by Robert Brown the naturalist on the Flinders expedition, who can be called ‘The Father of Australian botany’, for his effort in collecting over 3,900 specimens, of which 140 genera were new to science. Brown’s specimens and Prodromus published in 1810 formed the foundation for George Betham’s Flora Australiensis (1863-1878). In 1800 Sir Joseph Banks arranged for Ferdinand Bauer to join the expedition of Matthew Flinders in the Investigator to Terra Australis. Bauer worked closely with Robert Brown the naturalist and together they collected and illustrated thousands of plants. By August 1803 Bauer had made 1000 drawings of plants and 200 of animals before returning to England in 1805. By then Bauer had made 2073 drawings, of which some 1540 drawings were of Australian plants and the remainder of plants from Norfolk Island, Timor and the Cape.<br />"One of the greatest of all classics of Australian exploration and discovery... Flinders' classic account of his voyage on board the Investigator records the full-scale expedition to discover and explore the entire coastline of Australia (which was the name that Flinders himself preferred and championed). The three volumes form a complete narrative of the expedition, including an authoritative introductory history of maritime exploration in Australian waters from the earliest times. The text contains a day-by-day account of the Investigator voyage and Flinders's later voyages on the Porpoise and the Cumberland. Robert Brown's "General Remarks, geographical and systematical, on the Botany of Terra Australis", which is illustrated by Ferdinand Bauer's botanical plates in the atlas, is printed as an appendix in the second volume. The text is illustrated by nine engraved plates and two double-page plates of coastal views in the atlas by the landscape painter William Westall, who travelled as official artist on the voyage. These are in many cases the very earliest views of the places visited and discovered on the voyage. Flinders' charts in the atlas were of such accuracy that they continued to be issued by the Admiralty for decades and form the basis of all modern charts of Australia. All the charts in the atlas here bear the imprint "W. & G. Nicol Pall Mall… 1814", an important point that identifies them all as being in the correct first issue form." (Hordern House, A unique assemblage of natural history, Item 11, 2019)<br />Hill, 614; Tooley, pp. 77-9; Wantrup, 67a. For the full text of Volume I and II see https://archive.org/details/voyageTerraAustv1Flin/page/n7/mode/2up and https://archive.org/details/voyageTerraAustv2Flin

Subjects

Subjects :
Australia
London

Details

Database :
LUNA Commons
Publication Type :
Map
Accession number :
edsluc.RUMSEY.8.1.331907.90100350
Document Type :
Exploration Book<br />View