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56-698: The Flora Antarctica , or formally and correctly The Botany of the Antarctic Voyage of H.M. Discovery Ships Erebus and Terror in the years 1839–1843, under the Command of Captain Sir James Clark Ross , is a description of the many plants discovered on the Ross expedition , which visited islands off the coast of the Antarctic continent , with a summary of the expedition itself, written by

112-457: A Frozen Continent describes it as "a major reference to this day", encompassing as it does "all the plants he found both in the Antarctic and on the sub-Antarctic islands", surviving better than Ross's deep-sea soundings which were made with "inadequate equipment". Louis de Freycinet#Circumnavigation on Uranie He was born at Montélimar , Drôme . Louis-Claude de Saulces de Freycinet

168-408: A Frozen Continent describes it as "a major reference to this day", encompassing as it does "all the plants he found both in the Antarctic and on the sub-Antarctic islands", surviving better than Ross's deep-sea soundings which were made with "inadequate equipment". David Senchina notes that Hooker was the first botanist to set foot on Antarctica, in 1840; the first sighting of a plant on the continent

224-564: A copy of (a draft of) the Flora ; Darwin thanked him, and agreed in November 1845 that the geographical distribution of organisms would be "the key which will unlock the mystery of species". To explain the presence of plant groups on the widely-separated landmasses of Australia, New Zealand, and southern South America, Hooker proposed that the groups indeed had common ancestors, and that the plants had spread across now-vanished land bridges . Darwin

280-536: A map, and illustrates 150 species. According to Hooker, the flora of the islands south of Tasmania and New Zealand is related to that of New Zealand and bears no likeness to that of Australia. On the Auckland Islands wood grows near the sea and consists of the tree Metrosideros umbellata intermixed with woody Dracophyllum , Coprosma , Hebe (assigned to Veronica by Hooker) and Panax . These are undergrown by many ferns. Higher up grow alpines. On

336-485: A means of dispersing seeds and spores, as well as "standard plant collection, description, and classification". He concludes that Hooker, in the book and in discussion with Darwin, initiated the study of Antarctic plant geography and ecology. Ross expedition The Ross expedition was a voyage of scientific exploration of the Antarctic in 1839 to 1843, led by James Clark Ross , with two unusually strong warships, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror . It explored what

392-588: Is in Latin, while the discussion is in English. Each species is illustrated in the colour plates, the details indexed at the end of the text on that species. Thus for instance Ranunculus pinguis is described as acaulis, carnosus, pilosus, ... ('unstalked, fleshy, hairy, ...'); the a and β varieties living in Lord Auckland's group of islands, in "boggy places on the hills, alt . 1000 feet...". The Latin

448-707: Is now called the Ross Sea and discovered the Ross Ice Shelf . On the expedition, Ross discovered the Transantarctic Mountains and the volcanoes Mount Erebus and Mount Terror , named after each ship. The young botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker made his name on the expedition. The expedition confirmed the existence of the continent of Antarctica, inferred the position of the South Magnetic Pole and made substantial observations of

504-458: Is prefaced with a "Summary of the Voyage". Each volume begins with a brief general overview of the flora of its region. The body of the work consists of a systematic list of the plant families found in that region, such as Ranunculaceae . Each such family receives a brief overall description, followed by a brief account of the family's habitat in the region. The description of each family and species

560-518: Is tersely botanical, confining itself to anatomical features; the English discussion is more wide-ranging, with comments such as "A very handsome species, and quite distinct from any with which I am acquainted." The flowering plants are described first, followed by the " lower plants " and ending with the lichens . Part I, published between 1844 and 1845, covers the Flora of Lord Auckland and Campbell's Islands . It has 208 pages, 370 species, 80 plates and

616-598: The British . In 1800, Freycinet was appointed to an exploration expedition to Southern and South-Western coasts of Australia under Nicolas Baudin , on Naturaliste and Géographe . Freycinet's brother, Louis-Henri de Freycinet, was also part of the expedition. Between September 1802 and August 1803, Freycinet captained the schooner Casuarina , surveying the Australian coastline. He then transferred to Naturaliste , and returned to France in 1804. Matthew Flinders

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672-666: The British Association for the Advancement of Science (BA) proposed an expedition to carry out magnetic measurements in the Antarctic. Sir James Clark Ross was chosen to lead the expedition after previous experience working on the British Magnetic Survey from 1834 onwards, working with prominent physicists and geologists such as Humphrey Lloyd , Sir Edward Sabine , John Phillips and Robert Were Fox . Ross had made many previous expeditions to

728-623: The Cape Verde archipelago, Saint Peter and Saint Paul Archipelago , Trinidad and arrived at the Cape of Good Hope on 4 April 1840. On 21 April the giant kelp Macrocystis pyrifera was seen off Marion Island , but no landfall could be made there or on the Crozet Islands due to the harsh winds. On 12 May the ships anchored at Christmas Harbour for two and a half months, during which all plants previously encountered by James Cook on

784-612: The Flora Antarctica describes in its second part the plants of Tierra del Fuego and the south-western coast of Patagonia , the Falkland Islands, Palmer's Land, South Shetlands , South Georgia , Tristan da Cunha , and Kerguelen's Land. Part III, the Botany of New Zealand or Flora Nova-Zelandiae , was published in two volumes between 1851 and 1853. The book has an introductory essay which begins by summarizing

840-591: The Kerguelen Islands were collected. On 20 July they sailed again to arrive on 16 August at the River Derwent , to remain in Tasmania until 12 November. A week later the flotilla stopped at Lord Auckland's Islands and Campbell's Island for the spring months. Large floating forests of Macrocystis and Durvillaea were found until the ships ran into the icebergs at latitude 61° S. Pack-ice

896-855: The Ross Ice Shelf , which they were unable to penetrate, although they followed it eastward until the lateness of the season compelled them to return to Tasmania. The following summer, 1841–42, Ross continued to follow the ice shelf eastward. Both ships stayed at Port Louis in the Falkland Islands for the winter, returning in September 1842 to explore the Antarctic Peninsula , where they conducted studies in magnetism, and gathered oceanographic data and collections of botanical and ornithological specimens. The expedition arrived back in England on 4 September 1843, having confirmed

952-641: The chromolithographs by drawing directly onto the lithographic stone ; Hooker paid him personally. The four parts of the Flora Antarctica total 6 volumes, describe about 3000 species, and contain 530 plates which depict 1095 of the species. They were published by Reeve Brothers in London between 1844 and 1849. The work was reprinted (in English) by the German publisher J. Cramer in Weinheim in 1963. The work

1008-448: The zoology and botany of the region, resulting in a monograph on the zoology and a series of four detailed monographs by Hooker on the botany, collectively called Flora Antarctica , published in parts between 1843 and 1859. Among the expedition's biological discoveries was the Ross seal , a species confined to the pack ice of Antarctica. The expedition was also the last major voyage of exploration made wholly under sail . In 1838,

1064-657: The Arctic, including experience as captain. Ross, a captain of the Royal Navy , commanded HMS Erebus . Its sister ship, HMS Terror , was commanded by Ross' close friend, Captain Francis Crozier . The botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker , then aged 23 and the youngest person on the expedition, was assistant-surgeon to Robert McCormick , and responsible for collecting zoological and geological specimens. Hooker later became one of England's greatest botanists; he

1120-573: The British botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker and published in parts between 1844 and 1859 by Reeve Brothers in London. Hooker sailed on HMS Erebus as assistant surgeon. The botanical findings of the Ross expedition were published in four parts, the last two in two volumes each, making six volumes in all: All were "splendidly" illustrated by Walter Hood Fitch , who prepared thousands of detailed botanical figures on 530 colour plates. The greater part of

1176-706: The Campbell Islands brushwood is limited to narrow bays which are relatively sheltered. These islands are steeper and rocky and have bear less vegetation, primarily grasses. Hooker was the first to study the sub-Antarctic Campbell Island and the Auckland group. Part II, published between 1845 and 1847, covers the Botany of Fuegia, the Falklands, Kerguelen's Land, Etc. It has 366 pages, 1000 species, 120 plates, and illustrates 220 species. According to Hooker,

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1232-527: The Cape of Good Hope on 4 April 1843. At the end of the journey specimens of some fifteen hundred plant species had been collected and preserved. Few earlier botanical descriptions of the region had been written, and little or no plant collecting had been attempted other than on the coasts before 1820. The first flora for New Zealand was Achille Richard 's 1832 Essai d'une flore de la Nouvelle-Zélande , based on d'Urville's work and such earlier data as existed. This

1288-704: The Flora" of the Antarctic, complete with "comparative remarks on the species allied to the European species". Hooker subsequently made voyages to regions around the world including the Himalayas and India in 1847–1851, Palestine in 1860, Morocco in 1871, and the Western United States in 1877, collecting plants and writing monographs on his findings in each case. These helped him to build a high scientific reputation, and in 1855 he became Assistant-Director of

1344-624: The Navy scientific staff, notably marine hydrologist Louis Isidore Duperrey , artist Jacques Arago , and his junior draughtsman Adrien Taunay the Younger . Uranie sailed to Rio de Janeiro to take a series of pendulum measurements gather information in the fields of geography , ethnology , astronomy , terrestrial magnetism, meteorology , and for collecting specimens in natural history. Freycinet also managed to sneak his wife Rose de Freycinet aboard. For three years, Freycinet cruised about

1400-577: The Pacific, visiting Australia, the Mariana Islands , Hawaiian Islands , and other Pacific islands, South America , and other places, and, notwithstanding the loss of Uranie on the Falkland Islands during the return voyage, returned to France with fine collections in all departments of natural history, and with voluminous notes and drawings of the countries visited. The results of this voyage were published under Freycinet's supervision, with

1456-560: The Pole, but did infer its position. The expedition made the first "definitive" charts of magnetic declination , magnetic dip and magnetic intensity, in place of the less accurate charts made by the earlier expeditions of Charles Wilkes and Dumont d'Urville . The expedition's zoological discoveries included a collection of birds. They were described and illustrated by George Robert Gray and Richard Bowdler Sharpe in The Zoology of

1512-577: The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; he became full Director in 1865, remaining so for 20 years. Hooker was ably assisted by the illustrator Walter Hood Fitch , who "splendidly" prepared the many colour illustrations required for the Flora . William Hooker had encouraged Fitch to move into botanical illustration; from 1834, Fitch was the sole artist for Curtis's Botanical Magazine . In 1841, when William Hooker became Director at Kew, Fitch became Kew's sole artist for all its publications, making

1568-521: The Voyage of HMS Erebus & HMS Terror . The expedition was the first to describe the Ross seal , which it found in the pack ice , to which the species is confined. The expedition's botanical discoveries were documented in Joseph Dalton Hooker's four-part Flora Antarctica (1843–1859). It totalled six volumes (parts III and IV each being in two volumes), covered about 3000 species, and contained 530 plates figuring in all 1095 of

1624-474: The book is sometimes stated to have been published in 1859, the dedication is dated January 1860. It made use of plants collected by the local naturalist Robert Lawrence as well as Gunn and Archer. The book begins with an "Introductory Essay" on biogeography . It is followed by a "Key to the Natural Orders of Tasmanian Flowering Plants" and a more detailed key to the genera. The Flora proper begins with

1680-562: The book's approach; as with the other volumes, the bulk of the text is a systematic account of the families and species found by the expedition. The Flora "largely completed" the "primary phase of botanical survey in the [New Zealand] region". Part IV, the Botany of Tasmania or Flora Tasmaniae was published in two volumes between 1853 and 1859. Hooker dedicated this Part to the local Tasmanian naturalists Ronald Campbell Gunn and William Archer , noting that "This Flora of Tasmania .. owes so much to their indefatigable exertions". Although

1736-475: The coast of Western Australia is called Freycinet Estuary . Cape Freycinet between Cape Leeuwin and Cape Naturaliste and the Freycinet Peninsula with Freycinet National Park in Tasmania also bear the explorer's name. In 1805, he returned to Paris, and was entrusted by the government with the work of preparing the maps and plans of the expedition. He also completed the narrative, and

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1792-473: The essay, on plant biogeography and evolution, is entitled "On the limits of species; their dispersion and variation"; Hooker discusses how plant species may have originated, and notes how much more they vary than was often supposed. The third chapter of the essay considers the "affinities" (relationships) of the New Zealand flora to other floras. The flora proper begins with a short introduction explaining

1848-457: The existence of the southern continent and charted a large part of its coastline. It was the last major voyage of exploration made wholly under sail . Both Erebus and Terror would later be fitted with steam engines and used for Franklin's lost expedition of 1845–1848, in which both ships (and all crew) would ultimately be lost; their ship-wrecks have now been found. Ross discovered the "enormous" Ross Ice Shelf, correctly observing that it

1904-517: The explanation but agreed that geographical distribution would be vital to understanding the origin of species. In the 21st century the book is still treated as a major reference work. The British government fitted out an expedition led by the explorer and naval officer James Clark Ross to investigate magnetism and marine geography in high southern latitudes , which sailed with two ships, HMS Terror and HMS Erebus on 29 September 1839 from Chatham . The ships docked at Madeira , Tenerife ,

1960-572: The explorations of the French survey ship Coquille , on which D'Urville had served as a young officer. When visiting the Hermite Islands , seedlings of the deciduous Nothofagus antarctica and the evergreen Nothofagus betuloides were collected from this southernmost location of any tree. These were planted on the Falklands, and some were later brought to Kew. On Cockburn's Island twenty cryptogam species were found. The ships returned to

2016-420: The eye could discern... It presented an extraordinary appearance, gradually increasing in height, as we got nearer to it, and proving at length to be a perpendicular cliff of ice, between one hundred and fifty and two hundred feet above the level of the sea, perfectly flat and level at the top, and without any fissures or promontories on its even seaward face. Ross called this the "Great Ice Barrier", now known as

2072-508: The first order, the Ranunculaceae . Flora Tasmaniae was "the first published case study supporting Charles Darwin ’s theory of natural selection ". It contained a "milestone essay on biogeography ", "one of the first major public endorsements of the theory [of evolution by natural selection]". Hooker gradually changed his mind on evolution as he wrote up his findings from the Ross expedition. While he asserted that "my own views on

2128-459: The flora of New Zealand 's Antarctic islands is so different from that of the remainder of the territories visited during the voyage, that it merits a separate description. An exemplary difference is the dominance of Asteraceae in New Zealand's islands, and absence of representatives of the Rubiaceae , while the reverse is true for those two plant families on the other Antarctic archipelagos. So

2184-450: The history of botanical research of the islands. Hooker singles out the work of Sir Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander on Captain Cook 's first voyage in 1769, also mentioning Cook's second voyage and, 20 years later, the explorations of the French survey ship Coquille and the plant collector D'Urville. Hooker notes that the fungi of the islands remained largely unknown. The next chapter of

2240-546: The plant specimens collected during this expedition are now part of London's Kew Herbarium . The Flora of Tasmania contains an introductory essay on biogeography written from a Darwinian point of view, making the book the first case study for the theory of evolution by natural selection . This has been seen as the foundation of evolutionary biogeography. Hooker gave Darwin a copy of the work, which proposed that plant groups on different landmasses had common ancestors, spreading via long-vanished land bridges . Darwin doubted

2296-483: The present day are capable of rightly appreciating this heroic deed, this brilliant proof of human courage and energy. With two ponderous craft – regular "tubs" according to our ideas – these men sailed right into the heart of the pack [ice], which all previous explorers had regarded as certain death ... These men were heroes – heroes in the highest sense of the word." Hooker's Flora Antarctica remains important; in 2013 W. H. Walton in his Antarctica: Global Science from

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2352-490: The ships landed on Victoria Land and proceeded to name areas of the landscape after British politicians, scientists and acquaintances. Mount Erebus , on Ross Island , was named after one ship and Mount Terror after the other. McMurdo Bay (now known as McMurdo Sound ) was named after Archibald McMurdo , senior lieutenant of Terror . Reaching latitude 76° south on 28 January 1841, the explorers spied ...a low white line extending from its eastern extreme point as far as

2408-494: The species described. It was throughout "splendidly" illustrated by Walter Hood Fitch . The parts were: Hooker gave Charles Darwin a copy of the first part of the Flora ; Darwin thanked him, and agreed in November 1845 that the geographical distribution of organisms would be "the key which will unlock the mystery of species". In 1912, the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen wrote of the Ross expedition that "Few people of

2464-682: The subjects of the variability of existing species" remain "unaltered from those which I maintained in the ' Flora of New Zealand '", the Flora Tasmaniae is written from a Darwinian perspective that effectively assumes natural selection, or as Hooker named it, the "variation" theory, to be correct. The American botanist Asa Gray welcomed the publication of the first two parts of the Flora , describing it as an "elaborate and highly beautiful work,—second in importance and in perfection of illustration, to no other Flora which has appeared in our time". The work's author, Hooker, gave Charles Darwin

2520-606: The substantial recoil of these three-ton weapons. Their solid construction ideally suited them for use in dangerous sea ice that might crush other ships. The 372-ton Erebus had been armed with two mortars – one 13 in (330 mm) and one 10 in (250 mm) – and ten guns. In September 1839, Erebus and Terror departed Chatham in Kent, arriving at Tasmania (then known as Van Diemen's Land ) in August 1840. On 21 November 1840 they departed for Antarctica. In January 1841,

2576-519: The voyage. He had been on the Beagle surveying the coasts of Bolivia, Peru and Chile. Another Arctic veteran was Thomas Abernethy , another friend of Ross, who joined the new expedition as a gunner . HMS Erebus and HMS Terror , the ships servicing the Ross expedition, were two unusually strong warships. Both were bomb ships , named and equipped to fire heavy mortar bombs at a high angle over defences, and were accordingly heavily built to withstand

2632-470: The whole work appeared under the title of Voyage de découvertes aux terres australes (Paris, 1807–1816). The plant genus Freycinetia ( Pandanaceae ) was named in his honor, as was the Hawaiian native tree/shrub Santalum freycinetianum . In 1817, he was given command of the French corvette Uranie (1811), especially reconfigured to a new exploration voyage. Uranie carried several members of

2688-720: The work of the French explorer Admiral Jules Dumont d'Urville , who had sailed to the Antarctic and the Pacific between 1837 and 1840, and of the crew of the Uranie , who had visited the South Atlantic and the South Pacific between 1817 and 1820. In the Flora Atlantica , Hooker praises the work of the English botanist Sir Joseph Banks and his Swedish assistant, Daniel Solander , on Captain Cook 's first voyage in 1769. Hooker also mentions Cook's second voyage and

2744-567: Was a close friend of Charles Darwin and became director of the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew for twenty years. McCormick had been ship's surgeon for the second voyage of HMS Beagle under Captain Robert FitzRoy , along with Darwin as gentleman naturalist. The second master on Terror was John E. Davis who was responsible for much of the surveying and chart production, as well as producing many illustrations of

2800-448: Was being held captive by the French on Mauritius , thus many of his discoveries were revisited and unintendedly claimed by François Péron , and new names were given by this expedition. In 1824, it was remedied in the second edition of Voyage découvertes aux terres australes . In the end, Baudin and Freycinet managed to have their map of the Australian coastline published in 1811 , three years before Flinders published his. An inlet on

2856-675: Was followed by Allan Cunningham's 1839 Florae insularum Novae-Zelandiae praecursor . Joseph Dalton Hooker was a British botanist . His father, William Jackson Hooker , was the director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew , the United Kingdom's centre for the study of plant species. The voyage to the Antarctic on the Ross expedition, when he was 23 years old, was his first; formally, he sailed on HMS Erebus as assistant surgeon. Charles Darwin wrote to Hooker in November 1843, urging him to write "some general sketch of

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2912-495: Was his full name (many calling him Louis de Freycinet). His mother was Élisabeth-Antoinette-Catherine Armand . He had three brothers, Louis-Henri de Saulces de Freycinet, André-Charles de Saulces de Freycinet and the youngest, Frédéric-Casimir de Saulces de Freycinet (father of Charles de Freycinet ). Louis-Claude was the second oldest. In 1793 he joined the French Navy as a midshipman, and took in several engagements against

2968-508: Was met at 68° S and longitude 175°. During this part of the voyage Victoria Land , Mount Erebus and Mount Terror were discovered. After returning to Tasmania for three months, the flotilla went via Sydney to the Bay of Islands , and stayed for three months in New Zealand to collect plants. From 6 April 1842 a long stay in the Falklands began, where the flora was investigated to supplement

3024-482: Was only a few years earlier, namely A. Young's observation of Deschampsia antarctica (Antarctic hair grass) in 1819, from HMS Andromache , and the first plant specimen from an Antarctic island had been collected by the American James Eights only in 1830. Senchina calls Hooker's work "monumental", and notes that it covers ecology, with discussion of rocks as sources of heat for plants, and wind as

3080-528: Was sceptical of the explanation, preferring the hypothesis of long-distance seed dispersal. For this work, Hooker has been described as "the real founder of causal historical biogeography ". In 1868, the botanist Robert Oliver Cunningham described the Flora as "invaluable" for his study of the plants of "Fuegia" from the survey ship HMS Nassau . Flora Antarctica remains important, and continues to be cited in modern botanical research. For example, in 2013 W. H. Walton in his Antarctica: Global Science from

3136-593: Was the source of the tabular icebergs seen in the Southern Ocean , and helping to found the science of glaciology . He identified the Transantarctic Mountains and the volcanoes Erebus and Terror, named after his ships. The main purpose of the Ross expedition was to find the position of the South Magnetic Pole , by making observations of the Earth's magnetism in the Southern hemisphere . Ross did not reach

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