Flora Tasmaniae facts for kids

The Flora Tasmaniae is a special book about the plants found in Tasmania, an island south of Australia. It was written by a famous botanist named Joseph Dalton Hooker. The book was published in London between 1855 and 1860.

Hooker was a surgeon's assistant on a big trip called the Ross expedition. This book was the last of four "Floras" (books about plants) that he wrote after exploring different parts of the world. The other books were about plants from places like the Auckland Islands and New Zealand. All these books had amazing pictures drawn by Walter Hood Fitch.

Most of the plant samples collected during the Ross expedition are now kept at the Kew Herbarium, which is like a huge library of dried plants.

Even though Hooker said his ideas about Charles Darwin's theory of evolution hadn't changed, the Flora Tasmaniae included an important essay. This essay talked about how plants are spread around the world, using Darwin's ideas. This made the book the very first study to support Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection.

What Was the Ross Expedition?

The British government sent out a big trip called the Ross expedition. It was led by James Clark Ross. The main goal was to study magnetism and map the oceans in the far southern parts of the world. Two ships, HMS Terror and HMS Erebus, sailed from England on September 29, 1839.

The ships made several stops on their long journey. They reached the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa in April 1840. They found giant kelp near Marion Island, but strong winds stopped them from landing. They spent two and a half months at Christmas Harbour, collecting all the plant types that James Cook had found earlier on the Kerguelen Islands.

In August, they arrived at the River Derwent in Tasmania. They collected plants there until November. A week later, they stopped at Lord Auckland's Islands and Campbell's Island for the spring months.

They saw huge floating forests of kelp as they sailed south. Eventually, they hit icebergs and then thick pack-ice. During this part of the trip, they discovered Victoria Land, Mount Erebus, and Mount Terror in Antarctica.

After returning to Tasmania for three months, the ships sailed to Sydney, Australia, and then to the Bay of Islands in New Zealand. They stayed there for three months. After visiting other islands, the ships returned to the Cape of Good Hope in April 1843. By the end of the journey, they had collected and saved samples of about 1,500 different plant species!

About the Book Flora Tasmaniae

The Flora Tasmaniae is a very detailed book, with 930 pages. It was published in parts between 1855 and 1860. Joseph Dalton Hooker dedicated the book to two local naturalists, Ronald Campbell Gunn and William Archer. He thanked them for their hard work in helping him collect plants.

The book is divided into two main volumes:

• Volume 1: This volume covers dicotyledons, which are plants that have two seed leaves when they sprout. It has 550 pages, describes 758 species, and includes 100 detailed pictures.
• Volume 2: This volume covers monocotyledons (plants with one seed leaf) and other plant groups. It has 422 pages, describes 1,445 species, and also includes 100 plates with pictures.

The book starts with an "Introductory Essay" about biogeography. This is the study of where different plants and animals live around the world. It also has a "Key" to help people identify Tasmanian flowering plants. After that, the book describes each plant family, starting with the Ranunculaceae (the buttercup family).

Why Was This Book Important?

Hooker's Flora Tasmaniae was very important because it was the first published study to support Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection. It contained a "milestone essay on biogeography" which was one of the first big public statements supporting the idea of evolution by natural selection.

As Hooker wrote about his discoveries from the Ross expedition, his ideas about evolution slowly changed. Even though he said his views on how species change hadn't changed since his previous book, the Flora of New Zealand, the Flora Tasmaniae was written from a Darwinian point of view. This means it basically assumed that natural selection, or "variation theory" as Hooker called it, was correct.

See also

In Spanish: Flora Tasmaniae para niños