This sketch of flax or harakeke was published in Characteres generum plantarum in 1776. The work was by Johann Reinhold Forster and his son Georg, who were naturalists on James Cook’s second voyage to New Zealand in 1772–75. The pair recorded 36 species of birds at Dusky Sound, Fiordland – an improvement on Cook’s first visit, when no land birds were scientifically described and only one seabird was drawn.
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Alexander Turnbull Library, Rare English Collection, Special Printed Collections
Reference:
Johann Reinhold Forster, Characteres generum plantarum. London: B. White, T. Cadell & P. Elmsly, 1776, plate 24 (SPC 06/716)
Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.
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