Author | James Edward Smith |
---|---|
Illustrator | James Sowerby |
Subject | Flora of Australia |
Genre | Botany |
Publisher | James Sowerby |
Publication date | 1793 to 1795 (4 parts) |
Pages | 40 text 16 colour plates |
A Specimen of the Botany of New Holland, also known by its standard abbreviation Spec. Bot. New Holland, was the first published book on the flora of Australia. [1] Written by James Edward Smith and illustrated by James Sowerby, it was published by Sowerby in four parts between 1793 and 1795. It consists of 16 colour plates of paintings by Sowerby, mostly based on sketches by John White, and around 40 pages of accompanying text. It was presented as the first volume in a series, but no further volumes were released. [2]
The work began as a collaboration between Smith and George Shaw. Together they produced a two-part work entitled Zoology and Botany of New Holland , with each part containing two zoology plates and two botany plates, along with accompanying text. These appeared in 1793, although the publications themselves indicate 1794. The collaboration then ended, and Shaw went on to independently produce his Zoology of New Holland . Smith's contributions to Zoology and Botany of New Holland became the first two parts of A Specimen of the Botany of New Holland, a further two parts of which were issued in 1795. [3]
The book contained details of the following Australian plants: [4]
James Sowerby was an English naturalist, illustrator and mineralogist. Contributions to published works, such as A Specimen of the Botany of New Holland or English Botany, include his detailed and appealing plates. The use of vivid colour and accessible texts was intended to reach a widening audience in works of natural history. The standard author abbreviation Sowerby is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.
Grevillea buxifolia, commonly known as grey spider flower, is a species of flowering plant in the family Proteaceae, and is endemic to New South Wales, Australia. It is an erect to spreading shrub with elliptic to egg-shaped leaves, and woolly-hairy clusters of rust-coloured to fawn flowers.
Goodenia is a genus of about two hundred species of flowering plants in the family Goodeniaceae. Plants in this genus are herbs or shrubs, mostly endemic to Australia. The leaves are variably-shaped, the flowers arranged in small groups, with three or five sepals, the corolla bilaterally symmetrical and either fan-shaped with two "lips" or tube-shaped. The petals are usually yellow to white, the stamens free from each other and the fruit a capsule.
Grevillea mucronulata, also known as green spider flower or green grevillea, is a species of flowering plant of the family Proteaceae and is endemic to New South Wales in Australia. Described by Robert Brown in 1810, it is found in open sclerophyll forest or woodland around the Sydney region and New South Wales south coast. It grows as a small bush to 3 m (9.8 ft) high and wide, with variable foliage and greenish flowers that appear over the cooler months from May to October. The flowers are attractive to birds.
Grevillea sericea, commonly known as the pink spider flower, is a species of flowering plant in the family Proteaceae and is endemic to New South Wales. It is a shrub with elliptic to lance-shaped leaves with the narrower end towards the base, and clusters of usually pink flowers arranged on one side of a flowering rachis.
Eucalyptus capitellata, commonly known as brown stringybark, is a species of tree that is endemic to New South Wales. It is a small to medium-sized tree with rough, stringy bark from the trunk to the thinnest branches, lance-shaped to curved adult leaves, spindle-shaped or oblong flower buds in groups of seven or more, white flowers and clusters of flattened hemispherical fruit.
Eucalyptus tereticornis, commonly known as forest red gum, blue gum or red irongum, is a species of tree that is native to eastern Australia and southern New Guinea. It has smooth bark, lance-shaped to curved adult leaves, flower buds in groups of seven, nine or eleven, white flowers and hemispherical fruit.
Corymbia gummifera, commonly known as red bloodwood, is a species of tree, rarely a mallee, that is endemic to eastern Australia. It has rough, tessellated bark on the trunk and branches, lance-shaped adult leaves, flower buds in groups of seven, creamy white flowers and urn-shaped fruit.
Grevillea caleyi, also known as Caley's grevillea, is a critically endangered species of flowering plant in the family Proteaceae and is endemic to a restricted area around the Terrey Hills and Belrose area in New South Wales. It is an open, spreading shrub, growing up to 4 m (13 ft) tall with deeply divided leaves with linear lobes, and fawn flowers with a maroon to red style.
Platylobium formosum, also known as handsome flat-pea, is a shrub that is endemic to Australia. It is a member of the family Fabaceae and of the genus Platylobium.
Styphelia is a genus of shrubs in the family Ericaceae, native from Indo-China through the Pacific to Australia. Most have minute or small leaves with a sharp tip, single, tube-shaped flowers arranged in leaf axils and with the ends of the petals rolled back with hairs in the inside of the tube.
Styphelia tubiflora, known as red five-corner is a shrub found in eastern Australia. The habitat is poor sandy soils, in dry eucalyptus forest or heathlands. It occurs in areas such as Sydney, Jervis Bay and the Blue Mountains.
Styphelia ericoides, commonly known as the pink beard-heath, is a species of flowering plant in the heath family Ericaceae and is endemic to south-eastern Australia. It is a slender shrub with oblong leaves, and white to pinkish, tube-shaped flowers.
Lomatia silaifolia, commonly known as crinkle bush or parsley fern, is a plant of the family, Proteaceae native to eastern Australia. Naturally found in open forest, it grows as a small shrub 1–2 m high with highly pinnate leaves reminiscent of parsley. The white inflorescences appear in summer.
Lomatia myricoides, commonly known as the river lomatia, is a shrub native to New South Wales and Victoria in southeastern Australia.
Monotoca elliptica, the tree broom heath, is a plant in the family Ericaceae, found in south-eastern Australia.
The Burrinjuck Nature Reserve is a protected nature reserve on the south west slopes of New South Wales, Australia. The 5,250-hectare (13,000-acre) reserve is located adjacent to the Burrinjuck Dam, with 5,118 hectares of the reserve located on the northern side of the reservoir, and the remaining 89 hectares located on the southern side of the reservoir to the northeast of Black Andrew Nature Reserve. It includes land formerly managed as the Burrinjuck State Forest and Burrinjuck State Recreation Area.
Acacia hispidula, known colloquially as little harsh acacia, rough-leaved acacia or rough hairy wattle, is a species of Acacia native to eastern Australia.
The Eastern Suburbs Banksia Scrub, which also incorporates Sydney Coastal Heaths, is a remnant sclerophyll scrubland and heathland that is found in the eastern and southern regions of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Listed under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 as and endangered vegetation community and as 'critically endangered' under the NSW Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016, the Eastern Suburbs Banksia Scrub is found on ancient, nutrient poor sands either on dunes or on promontories. Sydney coastal heaths are a scrubby heathland found on exposed coastal sandstone plateau in the south.