Capt. Cook plant prints on exhibit

When Capt. James Cook set off on his first journey to the South Pacific, he had no idea what plants he would discover.

He found plants such as Piper methysticum, more commonly known as kawa or awa, in the Society Islands; and Asplenium flabellifolium, known as necklace fern, in New Zealand.

Thirty prints of these and other exotic plants collected during Cook’s 1768-1771 voyage will be on display for the first time at the National Tropical Botanical Garden’s headquarters on Kauai as part of its 50th anniversary celebration.

"These extraordinary prints stem from the marriage of art and science," said John Clark, the exhibit’s curator and NTBG’s co-director of science and conservation. "From a scientific perspective, each piece is an invaluable technical rendering as important as our greatest historical texts. And as works of art, the craftsmanship and beautiful imagery is unsurpassed."

The plants on exhibit were collected by botanist Sir Joseph Banks, who accompanied Cook as he crossed the Atlantic, rounded Cape Horn and visited Tahiti, New Zealand and Australia. Banks commissioned the creation of the copperplate engravings used to make prints.

But the majority of engravings were not printed for more than 200 years, after being taken out of storage at the British Museum. Even then the process of producing a complete set of prints from the voyage took more than a decade.

Only 100 complete sets were made. NTBG offers a glimpse of these rare prints at its Juliet Rice Wichman Botanical Research Center in Kalaheo, Kauai, until April 30.