Captain Cook’s Florilegium

This is a 20th-century publication of a selection of engravings from the drawings of plants collected by Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander on Captain James Cook's first voyage to the islands of the Pacific, with accounts of the voyage by Wilfred Blunt and of the botanical explorations and prints by William T. Stearn.

The stated purpose of British Royal Navy Officer Captain Cook's momentous first voyage round the world on board His Majesty's Ship Endeavour (1768-1771) was to witness the transit of Venus, which was due to take place on 3 June 1769, from a suitable position in the South Pacific in order that the distance between the Earth and the Sun might be calculated. The unstated purpose was, of course, to search for the great southern continent long supposed to exist in the Southern Ocean.

Cook successfully witnessed the transit from Tahiti and he surveyed and took possession of the east coast of Australia, which he named New South Wales in the name of King George III, though he failed in discovering the postulated southern continent. On board was also the self-funded Joseph Banks 1743-1820 an amateur botanist of only twenty-five years old, as well as his scientific party, including fellow botanist Daniel Solander (1733-1782) and botanical artist Sydney Parkinson (1745-1771). As noted by Stearn in his account of the botanical explorations, Banks and Solander returned with herbarium specimens comprising some 110 new genera and 1,300 new species; Parkinson's sketches in turn served as the basis for almost 1,000 illustrations. Captain Cook's Florilegium is important from a botanical, historical, and indeed from an artistic perspective. It truly does demonstrate qualities of design and workmanship in keeping with the golden age of fine illustrated flower books.