The Flora Antarctica is intended to give a complete history of the Vegetation of the Antarctic Regions, namely, such lands as are situated between the parallels of 50° and 78° South, the utmost limit that has been attained by Navigators. It will comprise an account of the Plants of Lord Auckland's and Campbell's Islands, of Kerguelen's and the Falkland Islands, of Tierra del Fuego, and of all the South Circumpolar Regions. Amongst other novelties will be included accounts of the Cabbage of Kerguelen's Island, a plant entirely new to science, though discovered and beneficially used during Captain Cook's Voyage; the Tussac and other grasses of the Falklands; the Beech-trees, evergreen and deciduous, of Cape Horn, and many productions of great botanical interest.
In addition to the extensive collections made by the Officers of the Erebus and Terror, during three years spent in the high southern latitudes, the still unpublished Herbaria formed by Sir Joseph Banks, Forster, Solander, and Menzies, all deposited in the British Museum, are placed at the Author's disposal by the kindness of Mr. Brown, as are also the plants of Capt. Fitzroy's Voyage, by Mr. Darwin and Professor Henslow. These materials, together with species from private Herbaria, especially that of Sir William Jackson Hooker of the Royal Botanic Garden at Kew, will enable the Author to make a very important addition to the extra-tropical Botany of the Southern Hemisphere.
As the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury have been pleased to grant a liberal sum of money towards defraying the expense of the Plates, Messrs. Reeve are enabled to produce the work in the most careful and highly finished style, at a price considerably below that of similar publications, giving the full benefit of the Admiralty grant to the public.
N.B. The Flora Antarctica, complete in itself, will be followed by two others, for which ample materials were collected during the same Voyage:—viz.
The Flora Novæ Zelandiæ, or Botany of New Zealand, illustrated with 140 Plates; and the
Flora Tasmanica, or Botany of Van Diemen's Island, illustrated with 200 Plates.
