SOME NEW ZEALAND NATURALISTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3315, 26 September 1917, Page 55

SOME NEW ZEALAND NATURALISTS.

By Geo. M. Thomson, F.L.B.

H.—JOHN FORSTER AND WILLIAM ANDERSON. "" In my brief account of Banks's life and ■work 1 referred to his companion and brother botanist. Dr Solander, and also incidentally to Dr John Forster and his eon George, who accompanied Cook on his second voyage. Unfortunately, the latter were in some respects careless, particularly in their descriptive work, and therefor© much of what they published is not of much value. Sir J. D. Hooker cays of them: —" The specimens (collected by them) were distributed to various museums, and, being very often carelessly named, much confusion has crept into descriptive works." One interesting thing about Forster's work is that he ga.ve generic names to a large number of New Zealand plants, and if the printer will forgive me for giving a list of them, I shall promise not to offend to such an extent again. His names were mostly derived from the Greek, and they are often very suggestive. Here are some of them. Everyone who has even a bowing acquaintance with New Zealand botany will be glad to learn the meaning and origin of many of these names. The root names are the nearest renderings one can give of the original Greek words:

Melicytus (meli, honey; kutos, cavity), Plagianthus (plagios, oblique; anthos, a flower), Melicope (meli; kope, a division), Pennantia (in honour of Thomas Pennant the naturalist), Corynocarpus (coryne, a club; carpos, a fruit), Donatia (in honour of Antonio Donati, a Venetian botanist), Carpodetus (carpos; detos, bound), Haloragis (hals, the sea,; rhagos, a berry or grape stone), Leptospermum (leptos, slender; sperma, a seed), Aciphylla (acis, sharp; phyllon, a leaf), Coprosma (kopros, dung, from the offensive smell of some of the species), Craspedia (craspedon, a fringe), brachyglottis. (brachus, short; glotta or glossa, * a tongue), Geniostoma (geneion, a beard; stoma, a mouth), Dichondra (dis, double; chondros, a seed), Thelymitra (an identical Greek word, alluding to the hooded column capping the anthers), Phormium (phormos, a basket, so named, no doubt, from the use made of the plant by the Natives), Gahnia (in honour of Dr Gahn, . a Swedish botanist). Many of these names are singularly appropriate and suggestive. Before leaving the Forsters it may be mentioned that Linnaeus named the Antarctic genus Forstera after tho father, Dr John Forster.

On his third voyage Cook was accompanied by a Mr W. Anderson as surgeon, who, however, made very small and unimportant collections. He had been surgeon's mate on the Resolution in 177275. But Captain Cook said of him: "He had been three times with me in Queen Charlotte Sound during my last voyage, and after this fourth visit, what he thought proper to record . may be considered as the result of sufficient observation." I have accordingly transcribed a good deal of what Mr Anderson wrote, for his remarks on -the natural history of the country are very interesting, At the same time I have put in parentheses the names of several of the plants and animals which he speaks about, as otherwise they might not be recognised.

After describing the general appearance of the country about the Sound, the climate, and the weather, Mi? Anderson says : " The large trees which cover the hills .are chiefly of two sorts. One of them, of the size of our largest firs, grows much after their manner (red pine, Dacrydium cupressinum); but the leaves and small berries on their points are much liker the yew. It was this which supplied the place of spruce in making beer, which we did with a strong decoction of its leaves, fermented with treacle or sugar. And this liquor, when well prepared, was acknowledged to be little inferior to- the American spruce beer by those who had had experience of both. The other sort of taee is not unlike a maple, and grows often to a great sizej but it served only for fuel, as the wood, both of this and of the preceding, was found to be rather too heavy for masts_, yards, and other /similar repairs." (I do not know what plant he refers to here.) " There Is a good variety of trees on the small flats behind the beaches. Amongst- these are two that bear a kind of plum of the size of prunes—the one yellow, called karaka (Corynocarpus lsevigatus), and the other black, called maitao (probably matai or black pine— Podocarpus spicatus),—-but neither of them of a very agreeable taste, though the Natives oat both, and our people did the same. Those of the first soifc grow on small trees, always facing the sea; but the others belong to larger trees that stand farther witßin the wood, and wh«h we frequently cut down for fuel. " A species of PhiladelpSus grows on the eminences which jut out into the Be<s, arid, also a tree bearing flowara almost like tho myrtle, with roundish, spotted leaves of a disagreeable smell. We drank tho leaves of the Philadelphus as tea, and found that tb<iy had a pleasant taste and smell, and might make an excellent substitute for the Oriental sort. (The Philadelphia, which is figured in volume I of Hawkesworth's "Cook's Third Voyage,"_ page 100, is the common manuka—-Lepto-spermum scoparium, while the other plant Is most probably Myrtus bullata.) " Among other plants that were useful to tis may be mentioned wild celery (Apium prostratum), which grows {xlentifully in almost every cove, especially f the Natives have ever resided there before, and one that we used to call scurvy-grass, though entirely different from the plant to which we give that name. This, however, is far preferable to ours for common use, and may be known by its

jagged leaves and small clusters of white flowers on the ton (Lepidium oleraceum). Both sorts we boiled every morning with wheat ground in a mill, and with portable soup for the people's breakfast, and also among their pease-soup for dinner. Sometimes they were used as salad, or dressed as greens. In all which ways they were good, and, together with the fish, with which we were constantly supplied, they formed a sort of refreshment, perhaps little inferior to what is to be met with in places most noted by navigators for plentiful supplies of animal and vegetable food.

"Amongst the known kinds of plants met -with here are common and rough bind weed (Convolvulus sp.), nightshade (Solanum avicularo or poro-poro), and nettles (Urtica ferox), both of which grow to the size of small trees; sowthistle, virgin's bower (clematis), vanelloe h. have no idea what this refers to], French willow (Epilobium), Euphorbia, and crane's bill (geranium) j also cudweed (Gnaphalium), rushes, bullrushes, flax (Linum), all-head [I do not know what is referred to], American nightshade (perhaps Solanum nigrum), knot-grass, brambles, eyebright, and groundsel; but the species of each are different from any we have in Europe." Two of these names are somewhat puzzling. Knot-grass is Polygonum aviculare, a common weed in many parts of New Zealand, which was apparently not found by any of the early collectors, and 'is therefore with much reason considered to be an introduction. If Anderson really found this species it would be a very interesting fact, and would settle a long-standing dispute among botanists; but the probability is that he meant some totally different plant. Similarly, eyebright is always applied to a species of Euphrasia; but though -there are several species of the genus in New Zealand, most of them are mountain forms, none of - them are common, and Anderson most probably is referring to something quite different. "There are also polypody, spleenwort, and about 20 other sorts of ferns entirely peculiar to the place, with several sorts of mosses, either rare or produced only here, besides a great number of other plants the uses of which are not yet known, and subjects for only botanical books. "Of these, however, there is one which deserves particular notice here, as the Natives make their garments of it, and it produces a fine, silky flax, superior in appearance to anything we have, and probably, at least, as strong. It grows everywhere near the sea, and in some places a considerable way up the hills, in bunches and tufts, with sedge-like leaves, bearing on a long stalk yellowish flowers ? which are succeeded by a long, roundish pod filled with very thin, shiny black seeds. A. species of long pepper (Piper excelsum) is f ound in great plenty; but it has little of the aromatic flavour makes spices valuable; and a tree mueh like a palm at a distance is pretty frequent in the woods, though the deceit _ appears as you .come near it. (It is possible that Anderson does refer to the nikau palm; but as he states it is not a palm, he may be referring to the broad-leaved cabbage tree —Cordyline indivisa.) It is remarkable that, as the greatest part of the trees and plants had at this time lost their flowers, we perceived they were generally of the berry-bearing kind, of which and other seeds I brought away about 30 different sorts. Of these one in particular, which bears a red berry, is much like the supplejack [it evidently is Rhipogonum scandens to which he refers], and grows about the trees, stretching from one to another in such a manner as to render the woods almost wholly impassable." The portion of Mr Anderson's Journal dealing with" the animals of New Zealand is too long for insertion in this article, but is of< sufficient interest to stand over to my next. . Meanwhile it only remains to say of the author that he developed consumption towards the end of 1777, and on August 3, 1778, , when the Resolution was in latitude 62.34 deg N. and longitude 192 deg (perhaps 168 deg E.), he died. Captain Cook wrote of him in his journal of the voyage: —" He was a sensible young man, an agreeable companion, well skilled in his own profession, and had acquired considerable knowledge in other branches of science. The reader of this journal will have observed how useful an assistant I had found him in the course of the voyage; and had it pleased God to have spared his life, the public, I have no doubt, might have received from him such communications on> various parts of the natural history of the several places we visited as would have abundantly shown that he was not unworthy of this commendation.

" Soon after he had breathed his last land was seen to the westward, 12 leagues distant. It was supposed to be an island, and, to perpetuate the memory of the deceased, for whom I had a very great regard, I named it Anderson's Island."