THE NATURALISED PLANTS. 127 



natives of Great Britain and Ireland.* There are also Australians, 

 North and South Americans, Africans, and Asiatics. Unlike the 

 ancestors of the indigenous species, the aliens were not borne hither 

 by winds or birds, or over ancient land-extensions now submerged : 

 but the ships that conveyed the human immigrants or their goods 

 brought the plants also. Some were purposely introduced for their 

 economic (grasses, leguminous plants, vegetables, trees, &c.) or orna- 

 mental value ; others came unbidden as impurities in agricultural or 

 garden seeds, in ballast of ships.f in the hay or straw packing of 

 goods, and in other ways. So thoroughly has the acclimatisation of 

 these plants succeeded that there are now more or less firmly esta- 

 blished about 530 species, some being abundant from the North Cape 

 to Stewart Island, and quite at home even on the highest mountains. 



Moreover, the species here under discussion, leaving out of con- 

 sideration for the present the non-flowering plants, are a most varied 

 assemblage, since they belong to no few T er than sixty-six families and 

 287 genera. Certain of these families are not represented in the 

 indigenous flora e.g., the poppy family (Pa paver aceae), the mig- 

 nonette family (Resedaceae) , the valerian family (Valerianaceae). the 

 teasel family (Dipsaceae), and some others. Most numerous of all, as 

 might perhaps be expected, are the grasses (eighty-one species), which 

 surpass in number even the great composite family (seventy species). 

 Then come the pea family (Leguminosae, forty-nine species) and the 

 cress family (Cruciferae, thirty-six species). Other fairly large families 

 are those of the pink (Caryopht/Uaceae, twenty-six species), sage (Labi- 

 fttae, twenty species), dock (Polygonaceae, fourteen species), buttercup 

 (Ranunculaceae, thirteen species), rose (Rosaceae, fifteen species), potato 

 (Solanaceae, thirteen species), carrot (Umbellif&rae, twelve species), 

 tigwort (Scrophularinaceae, eighteen species), poppy (Papaveraceae, ten 

 species), and borage (Boraginaceae, ten species). On the other hand, 

 some families are represented by only one species e.g., the gentian 

 (Gentianaceae),pii-miosQ(Primulaceae), and periwinkle (Apocynaceae). 



Proceeding through New Zealand from north to south, we find 

 that the acclimatised plants slowly decrease in numbers. Some 



* Such species are not confined to the British Isles, but are natives of northern 

 and central Europe as well, many being also foimd in Europe generally, and ex- 

 tending into Asia. 



t Mr. T. Kirk gives a list of 104 plants introduced in this manner, of which 

 20 per cent, were new to New Zealand, some being South American. 



