Boronia Parviflora: Engraving from Joseph Banks' Florilegium

SYDNEY PARKINSON and JOHN CLEVELEY (artists)

‘Plate 30. Boronia Parviflora, J.E. Smith, Gauroides purpurea (Rutaceae)’

London: Alecto Historical Editions in association with the British Museum (Natural History), 1980-1990

Engraving by Edward Walker, printed à la poupée by Alecto Historical Editions

Limited to 116 impressions, this no. 3 of 3 for exhibition and numbered ‘EP 3/3’





❧ BORONIA PARVICLORA, J.E. SMITH, GAUROIDES PURPUREA (RUTACEAE)

Species gathered at Botany Bay, Australia
28 April – 6 May 1770

After completing the circumnavigations of both Islands of New Zealand, Cook had three possible options: he could go across the South Pacific to Cape Horn, but the season and state of HMB Endeavour would render this journey perilous; he could go south of Tasmania to the Cape of Good Hope, but ‘no discovery of any Moment could be hoped for in that rout’ (Wharton (ed.), Captain Cook’s Journal, 31 March 1770); or he could go to the east coast of Australia and then north to the East Indies, and this was settled upon – an important first step in the ‘sequence of events leading to the British settlement of Australia and the development of the Dominion’ (Stearn, ‘A Royal Society Appointment’, pp. 107-108).

Cook’s first landing in Australia took place at the end of April 1770 near modern-day Sydney, at a place he first named ‘Stingray Harbour’. However, as he later recorded in his journal, ‘[t]he great quantity of plants Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander found in this place occasioned my giving it the Name of Botany Bay’ (Wharton (ed.), Captain Cook’s Journal, 6 May 1770).

The local reception of HMB Endeavour and her crew was not entirely friendly, so Banks and his party had to proceed with the collection of plants both carefully and swiftly. ‘By 3 May their collection of specimens had grown so large as to present difficulties of drying’ (Stearn, ‘A Royal Society Appointment’, p. 108); yet even two days later, anticipating their departure the following day, Banks recorded that ‘Dr Solander and myself were employd the whole day in collecting specimens of as many things as we possibly could to be examind at sea’ (Banks, The Endeavour Journal, 5 May 1770). ‘Rarely indeed can so many new and remarkable plants have been collected in so short a time’ (Stearn, ‘A Royal Society Appointment’, p. 109).

This plant, Boronia Parviflora, was one of the many that was gathered at Botany Bay. It is now commonly known as ‘Swamp Boronia’, native to the area around Sydney, and is unique among the Boronia of eastern Australia in having 4, 6, or 8 stamens



SPECIFICATIONS

The engravings are all of a very similar size, with platemarks of circa 457 x 305mm, and are printed on acid-free Somerset mould-made 300gsm paper manufactured by the Inveresk Paper Company. Each sheet is watermarked ‘AHE’, measures 724 x 556mm, and bears blind embossed stamps incorporating the publishers’ and printer’s chops, the copyright symbol, and date of publication; the initials of the individual printer, the plate number, and the edition number are recorded in pencil. The engravings are protected by a bifolium of acid-free Somerset mould-made 300gsm paper, cut to form a window mount on which is recorded the modern and Banksian names of the plant, the location and date of its collection and the name(s) of the artist and engraver. 

This print accompanied by a certificate of limitation.


This print is no longer available.




© Type & Forme and Alecto Historical Editions/Trustees of the Natural History Museum 2020