[Flax Plant of New Zealand.]

Rare first c.18th engraving of the New Zealand flax plant from the official British Admiralty sanctioned edition of the accounts of Cook’s second voyage and the first and most superior issue of this engraving.

This is the earliest engraving of the New Zealand Flax plant, Phormium tenax, first described by Johann Reinhold Foster on Captain Cook’s second voyage of exploration.

Cook arrived at Queen Charlotte Sound, New Zealand 12 May 1773 and stayed in the area till 6 June 1773.  Here the botanists on the voyage, the Forsters’, Johann Reinhold and his son George continued their plant collecting, and discovered numerous previously unknown plants. The New Zealand flax (Phormium tenax) was used extensively by Maori’s to make cloth and specimens were collected by the botanists at Queen Charlotte Sound. 

From, Cook, J. A Voyage Towards the South Pole, and Round the World, performed in His Majesty’s Ships the Resolution and Adventure, In the Years 1772, 1773, 1774, and 1775.