Next27. Hooker, Joseph Dalton, Sir (1817-1911)
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. London: Reeve Brothers, 1844-1860.
Mt. Erebus (erupting) and Mt. Terror, on Ross Island in the Ross Sea, from Joseph Hooker, The botany of the Antarctic voyage of … Erebus and Terror, 1844.
Kerguelen cabbage (Pringlea antiscorbutica),
from Joseph Hooker, The botany of the Antarctic voyage of … Erebus and Terror, 1844.
Joseph Hooker was the botanist on the voyage of the Erebus and Terror to Antarctica, a young man who was trying to follow in the path of Charles Darwin and HMS Beagle (and who, upon his return, would become Darwin’s lifelong best friend).
He published this survey of the flora encountered on the voyage, and most of the plants depicted are not particularly striking, as arctic plants have a tendency to be inconspicuous.
But his illustration of the Kerguelen cabbage is especially significant. This plant had been discovered by Captain Cook to ward off the symptoms of scurvy, and so future southern expeditions would stop here to gather the plant, and the Erebus and Terror harvested it in abundance. The plant’s scientific name, Pringlea antiscorbuitica, reflects its anti-scurvy properties.
The title-page vignette is the only illustration from the voyage that shows Mt. Erebus in eruption on Ross Island, Antarctica.
