The title refers to the search for La Pérouse, who disappeared in the region in 1788, a popular, though unsuccessful, object of the mission.
[2] Labillardière's work was published in two volumes, becoming very popular and translated into English in the same year; Voyage in search of La Pérouse (four editions) was issued by John Stockdale with similar success.
[4] The botanical descriptions were based on the extensive collections made by Labillardière during the expedition's stop at Esperance Bay, and the two visits to Tasmania.
The botanist Robert Brown took a copy of this work on his journey to Australia in 1801, enquiring in his letters home as to whether Labillardière had published his flora.
This anticipated work, Labillardière's Novae Hollandiae plantarum specimen (1804–1806), was published before Brown's more comprehensive Prodromus.