Florilegium

Joseph Banks accompanied Cook on his first voyage of circumnavigation in 1768 and collected over seven hundred hitherto unknown plant species, recorded in drawings by Sydney Parkinson. This film traces that journey of discovery to Madeira, Rio, Tahiti, New Zealand, Australia and Indonesia. It also documents the historic printing of the first full colour edition of Banks's Florilegium, which, after many misfortunes, finally came to fruition in the 1980s. Written and narrated by Robert Hughes, the programme is a rich mixture of art, history, science and travel.