Novae Hollandiae Plantarum Specimen
Encyclopedia
Novae Hollandiae Plantarum Specimen is a two volume work describing the flora of Australia
. The author was the French botanist Jacques Labillardière
, who visited the region in 1792 with the d'Entrecasteaux
expedition. Published between 1804 and 1806, it is one of the earliest works to describe the plants of the continent; according to Denis and Maisie Carr, "[i]n practical terms, this was the first general flora of Australia."
The work describes the botanical collections made by himself and his companion on the d'Entrecasteaux expedition, Charles Riche
, and the unattributed and later collections of Nicolas Baudin
's expedition. Labillardière's collections were seized by the English, but were returned to him in France at the intervention of Joseph Banks
. He made his collections at Observatory Island and other locations at the Archipelago of the Recherche
. Extensive collection were also made at Recherche Bay
, during his two visits to Tasmania
.
The preface describes the journey "from Cape of Good Hope to Australia", an example of the continent being named as 'Australia
' before its popularisation by Flinders
' use in A Voyage to Terra Australis
. The work includes 256 black-and-white botanical illustrations, including contributions by Pierre-Joseph Redouté
. Copper plates drawn by Pierre Antoine Poiteau
and engraved by Auguste Plée were produced for other illustrations.
Labillardière had named and described more Australian flora than any other botanist of the day; the work was the most comprehensive until Robert Brown
published his Prodromus
. This work featured the first descriptions of Cephalotus follicularis, a carnivorous plant, and species Adenanthos obovatus
and Gahnia trifida
from the southern coast. The collections made at southwest Australia
also produced new genera Adenanthos
(Proteaceae) and Calytrix
(Myrtaceae), species Astartea fascicularis
, Hakea clavata
and Taxandria marginata
, and the first description of the now widely introduced Acacia saligna
. Tasmanian species include Eucryphia lucida
(leatherwood) and Phyllocladus aspleniifolius
(celery-top pine). The first confirmed collection of Australian bryophyte
s are described and illustrated by the author; the current name for these species are the mosses Cyathophorum bulbosum and Hypnodendron comosum and a liverwort Hymenophyton flabellatum
.
Novae Hollandiae Plantarum Specimen has been praised for the accuracy of its descriptions and for the elegant scientific names coined therein. It has been criticised for its imprecision and occasional errors in collection locality and habitat; for example it attributes the collection of Eucalyptus ovata
to southwest Australia
, but it occurs only in Tasmania
and southeast Australia. Labillardière has also been criticised for publishing species based upon specimens collected by other botanists, without providing attribution or acknowledgement for the specimens.
The standard abbreviation for the work, Nov. Holl. Pl., is used in botanical literature, and is also known by the title Specimens of the Plants of New Holland. It is the second publication by Labillardière to describe Australian flora; the first was Relation du Voyage à la Recherche de la Pérouse
in 1799, a popular account of the voyage in search of the La Pérouse
expedition. The earlier work contains the first description of plant species such as Eucalyptus cornuta
.
Flora of Australia
The flora of Australia comprises a vast assemblage of plant species estimated to over 20,000 vascular and 14,000 non-vascular plants, 250,000 species of fungi and over 3,000 lichens...
. The author was the French botanist Jacques Labillardière
Jacques Labillardière
Jacques-Julien Houtou de Labillardière was a French naturalist noted for his descriptions of the flora of Australia. Labillardière was a member of a voyage in search of the La Pérouse expedition...
, who visited the region in 1792 with the d'Entrecasteaux
Bruni d'Entrecasteaux
Antoine Raymond Joseph de Bruni d'Entrecasteaux was a French navigator who explored the Australian coast in 1792 while seeking traces of the lost expedition of La Pérouse....
expedition. Published between 1804 and 1806, it is one of the earliest works to describe the plants of the continent; according to Denis and Maisie Carr, "[i]n practical terms, this was the first general flora of Australia."
The work describes the botanical collections made by himself and his companion on the d'Entrecasteaux expedition, Charles Riche
Claude Riche
Claude-Antoine-Gaspard Riche was a naturalist on Bruni d'Entrecasteaux's 1791 expedition in search of the lost ships of Jean-François de Galaup, comte de La Pérouse.Cape Riche, on the south coast of Australia, is named in his honour.-Early Life:...
, and the unattributed and later collections of Nicolas Baudin
Nicolas Baudin
Nicolas-Thomas Baudin was a French explorer, cartographer, naturalist and hydrographer.Baudin was born a commoner in Saint-Martin-de-Ré on the Île de Ré. At the age of fifteen he joined the merchant navy, and at twenty joined the French East India Company...
's expedition. Labillardière's collections were seized by the English, but were returned to him in France at the intervention of Joseph Banks
Joseph Banks
Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet, GCB, PRS was an English naturalist, botanist and patron of the natural sciences. He took part in Captain James Cook's first great voyage . Banks is credited with the introduction to the Western world of eucalyptus, acacia, mimosa and the genus named after him,...
. He made his collections at Observatory Island and other locations at the Archipelago of the Recherche
Archipelago of the Recherche
Archipelago of the Recherche is a group of 105 islands, and over 1200 "obstacles to shipping", off the southern coast of Western Australia. The islands, also known as the Recherche Archipelago, stretch from East to West and to off-shore....
. Extensive collection were also made at Recherche Bay
Recherche Bay
Recherche Bay is located on the extreme south-eastern corner of Tasmania, Australia and was a landing place of the d’Entrecasteaux expedition to find missing explorer La Pérouse...
, during his two visits to Tasmania
Tasmania
Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...
.
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
' before its popularisation by Flinders
Matthew Flinders
Captain Matthew Flinders RN was one of the most successful navigators and cartographers of his age. In a career that spanned just over twenty years, he sailed with Captain William Bligh, circumnavigated Australia and encouraged the use of that name for the continent, which had previously been...
' use in A Voyage to Terra Australis
A Voyage to Terra Australis
A Voyage to Terra Australis: Undertaken for the Purpose of Completing the Discovery of that Vast Country, and Prosecuted in the Years 1801, 1802, and 1803, in His Majesty's Ship the Investigator was a sea voyage journal written by English mariner and explorer Matthew Flinders...
. The work includes 256 black-and-white botanical illustrations, including contributions by Pierre-Joseph Redouté
Pierre-Joseph Redouté
Pierre-Joseph Redouté , was a Belgian painter and botanist, known for his watercolours of roses, lilies and other flowers at Malmaison. He was nicknamed "The Raphael of flowers"....
. Copper plates drawn by Pierre Antoine Poiteau
Pierre Antoine Poiteau
-Biography:He was born in Ambleny, France. After having worked in kitchen gardens and for the Parisian market gardeners, he was appointed by André Thouin garçon jardinier in 1790 at the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle of Paris...
and engraved by Auguste Plée were produced for other illustrations.
Labillardière had named and described more Australian flora than any other botanist of the day; the work was the most comprehensive until Robert Brown
Robert Brown (botanist)
Robert Brown was a Scottish botanist and palaeobotanist who made important contributions to botany largely through his pioneering use of the microscope...
published his Prodromus
Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen
Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen is an 1810 flora of Australia by botanist Robert Brown. Often referred to as Prodromus Flora Novae Hollandiae, or by its standard botanical abbreviation Prodr. Fl. Nov. Holland., it was the first attempt at a survey of the Australian flora...
. This work featured the first descriptions of Cephalotus follicularis, a carnivorous plant, and species Adenanthos obovatus
Adenanthos obovatus
Adenanthos obovatus, commonly known as basket flower or jugflower, is a shrub of the Proteaceae family endemic to Southwest Australia. Described by French naturalist Jacques Labillardière in 1805, it had been first collected by Archibald Menzies in 1791...
and Gahnia trifida
Gahnia trifida
Gahnia trifida is a tussock-forming perennial in the family Cyperaceae, endemic to southern Australia.A herb, sedge or grass-like, with very rough leaf margins and underside. The species grows in dense tussocks, 1.5 metres and 1 metre across, with leaves over 1 metre long and drooping. It is found...
from the southern coast. The collections made at southwest Australia
Southwest Australia
Southwest Australia is a biodiversity hotspot that includes the Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub ecoregions of Western Australia. The region has a wet-winter, dry-summer Mediterranean climate, one of five such regions in the world...
also produced new genera Adenanthos
Adenanthos
Adenanthos is an genus of Australian native shrubs in the flowering plant family Proteaceae. Variable in habit and leaf shape, it is the only Proteaceae genus in which solitary flowers is the norm. It was discovered in 1791, and formally published by Jacques Labillardière in 1805. There are now 33...
(Proteaceae) and Calytrix
Calytrix
Calytrix is a genus of shrubs in the family Myrtaceae. They are commonly known as Starflowers.Calytrix are endemic to Australia, occurring in all of its states.Species include:...
(Myrtaceae), species Astartea fascicularis
Astartea fascicularis
Astartea fascicularis is a species of the botanical family Myrtaceae. This plant is endemic to the south west of Western Australia.An erect shrub to three, or five, metres in height, with white and pink flowers that appear throughout the year...
, Hakea clavata
Hakea clavata
Hakea clavata is a Western Australian shrub. A common name for the species is Coastal Hakea, the epithet clavata refers to club-shape of the leaves....
and Taxandria marginata
Taxandria marginata
Taxandria marginata is a species of tree that grows in the south west corner of Western Australia. This plant was previously classified as Agonis marginata but was reclassified by Wheeler and Marchant into the new genus Taxandria in a 2007 revision....
, and the first description of the now widely introduced Acacia saligna
Acacia saligna
Acacia saligna, commonly known by various names including coojong, golden wreath wattle, orange wattle, blue-leafed wattle, Western Australian golden wattle, and, in Africa, Port Jackson willow, is a small tree in the family Fabaceae...
. Tasmanian species include Eucryphia lucida
Eucryphia lucida
Eucryphia lucida, commonly known as the Leatherwood is a small tree or large shrub found in forest in Tasmania. An attractive plant utilised in both the horticulture and apiculture industries, it was promoted by the Tasmanian Branch of the then SGAP as an alternative to the Tasmanian blue gum for...
(leatherwood) and Phyllocladus aspleniifolius
Phyllocladus aspleniifolius
Phyllocladus aspleniifolius is an endemic gymnosperm of Tasmania, Australia. It is found in rainforest as a dominant, in eucalypt forest as an understorey species, and occurs occasionally as a shrub in alpine vegetation...
(celery-top pine). The first confirmed collection of Australian bryophyte
Bryophyte
Bryophyte is a traditional name used to refer to all embryophytes that do not have true vascular tissue and are therefore called 'non-vascular plants'. Some bryophytes do have specialized tissues for the transport of water; however since these do not contain lignin, they are not considered to be...
s are described and illustrated by the author; the current name for these species are the mosses Cyathophorum bulbosum and Hypnodendron comosum and a liverwort Hymenophyton flabellatum
Hymenophyton flabellatum
Hymenophyton flabellatum is a species of the order Metzgeriales , one of perhaps several species in the genus Hymenophyton....
.
Novae Hollandiae Plantarum Specimen has been praised for the accuracy of its descriptions and for the elegant scientific names coined therein. It has been criticised for its imprecision and occasional errors in collection locality and habitat; for example it attributes the collection of Eucalyptus ovata
Eucalyptus ovata
Eucalyptus ovata, commonly known as Swamp gum or Black Gum, is a widespread occurring Australian eucalypt.The swamp gum is a small to , medium sized tree, rarely a mallee, with bark that sheds over most of the trunk revealing a smooth, grey, whitish or pinkish-grey surface. The rough bark is...
to southwest Australia
Southwest Australia
Southwest Australia is a biodiversity hotspot that includes the Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub ecoregions of Western Australia. The region has a wet-winter, dry-summer Mediterranean climate, one of five such regions in the world...
, but it occurs only in Tasmania
Tasmania
Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...
and southeast Australia. Labillardière has also been criticised for publishing species based upon specimens collected by other botanists, without providing attribution or acknowledgement for the specimens.
The standard abbreviation for the work, Nov. Holl. Pl., is used in botanical literature, and is also known by the title Specimens of the Plants of New Holland. It is the second publication by Labillardière to describe Australian flora; the first was Relation du Voyage à la Recherche de la Pérouse
Relation du Voyage à la Recherche de la Pérouse
Relation du Voyage à la Recherche de la Pérouse is a book , issued in 1800, that gives an account of the 1791-1793 d'Entrecasteaux expedition to Australasia. The title refers to the search for La Pérouse, who disappeared in the region in 1788, a popular, though unsuccessful, object of the mission...
in 1799, a popular account of the voyage in search of the La Pérouse
Jean-François de Galaup, comte de La Pérouse
Jean François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse was a French Navy officer and explorer whose expedition vanished in Oceania.-Early career:...
expedition. The earlier work contains the first description of plant species such as Eucalyptus cornuta
Eucalyptus cornuta
Eucalyptus cornuta, commonly known as Yate, is a tree which occurs in an area between Busselton and Albany in Western Australia....
.