The grasses John Buchanan illustrated in The Indigenous Grasses of New Zealand (1878-1880): Tuhinga 13

Tuhinga 13: 45 - 69

ABSTRACT: Modern names are given to the numbered specimens of the grasses that John Buchanan (1819-1898) used for the nature-printed illustrations in The Indigenous Grasses Of New Zealand (published between 1878 and 1880). The specimens are mounted in a guard book with the original drawings of the dissections; the collection is deposited in the Herbarium of the Museum of New Zealand (WELT). Fifty endemic, 18 indigenous, and 9 naturalised species were illustrated, some of them under two names. The Imperial Quarto edition, with 64 plates, and the smaller Royal Octavo edition met the practical agricultural needs of colonists for acces to information on native grasses, but over-dramatised their possible future utilisation.

KEYWORDS: grasses, illustrations, New Zealand, Buchanan, modern nomenclature of nineteenth century illustrations