4 JOURNAL OF A NATURALIST 
with pleasure by every reader of this Journal. Great though 
the tide of emigiation to New Zealand has been, the hills 
and the vallies are still clothed with their aboriginal vegeta- 
tion: but ere the next generation shall have succeeded the 
present, its stately forests proved to be so valuable in yielding 
spars for the British navy will be levelled with the ground ; 
and, as in St. Helena and other islands of limited extent, an 
exotic but naturalized vegetation will take their place ; even 
the very animals now common will be extirpated. Already 
the majestic Cowdie, or New Zealand Pine is become scarce 
in many parts of the northern island, and that most remark- 
able bird, the Apteryx australis,* is almost extinct. 
Very many of the plants alluded to in the following pages 
are here only mentioned by the numbers they bearin the 
collection sent to us by Mr. Colenso. Several of these have 
proved new: others require investigation and a comparison 
with specimens already existing in our own and other Her- 
barium, a work of much time, and I am unwilling to with- 
hold the Journal from the public till such period as these 
plants could be named with accuracy. The circumstance 
is the less to be regretted, since the Botanist of the recent 
Antarctic Voyage, Dr. Hooker, is preparing a * Flora of 
New Zealand,” in which Mr. Colenso's plants of the present 
Journey will be referred to according to their numbers.” 
Paihia, Bay of Islands, 
New Zealand, September 1, 1842. 
My dear Sir William, 
Having recently returned from a three months' tour among 
the natives in the little known districts of this island, and 
having been fortunate enough to obtain some Botanical spe- 
cimens, among which it is hoped several new and interesting 
..* See vol. 4, p. 312, of the Annals of Natural History, for an account 
of this bird, by Mr. Allan Cunningham. 
