HOW THE STOKY HAS BEEN AY KITTEN. 17 



Lesson, and Richard remain embalmed in the New Zealand flora 

 in Eapanea Vrrillci. Pseudopanax Lessonii, and Polystickum Richard! : 

 while D'Urville Island, the French Pass, and Astrolabe Harbour tell 

 of this important expedition. 



THE CUNNINGHAMS AND THE PLANT-LIFE OF NORTHERN AUCKLAND. 



Allan Cunningham, the colonial botanist of New South Wales, 

 who must not be confused with his namesake the Scottish poet, visited 

 New Zealand, in 18^6. The scene of his labours was the Bay of Islands 



/ 



and the district adjacent. Cunningham, accompanied by the Natives, 

 spent some five months collecting plants while wandering through 

 those virgin kauri forests, so soon to be destroyed. In 1833 his ill- 

 fated brother Richard* proceeded to New Zealand in H.M.S. '' Buffalo." 

 presumably to assist in procuring spars for maintopmasts. This 

 duty performed. R. Cunningham left the ship at Whangaroa. remaining 

 alone, solely in the interests of science, according to his biographer. 

 " on the shores of a harbour densely inhabited by savages, who had 

 but a few years before massacred the crew of the ship " Boyd.' and 

 more recently had, seized upon the houses and, property of the "\Ves- 

 leyan missionaries, who. after much fatigue, privation, and insult, 

 had effected a settlement among them." But. as luck would have it. 

 the Maoris remembered his brother Allan, with whom they had been 

 on most friendly terms, and so they welcomed the venturous botanist, 

 and assisted him to the utmost of their power. 



The two Cunninghams found many " new ' plants i.e.. such 

 as had not been described in any publication. These, together witl 

 a description of the other known New Zealand plants, were published 

 by Allan in his ' ' Flora Novae-Zelandiae Praecursor ; or. a Specimen 

 of the Botany of the Islands of New Zealand ' -an important work 

 containing valuable details as to the actual stations of the plants, 

 indispensable information so frequently not given by many authors. 



* 



RAOUL AND THE BOTANY OF BANKS PENINSULA. 



The visit of the French to Akaroa in 1840, and the narrow escape 

 from a colony of that nation being established on New Zealand soil, 

 are matters of general history. Less well known is the fact that 



* He was botanist to Mitchell's expedition to interior of New 8outh Wales 

 in lS3o, and, getting separated from the party, was killed by the Natives. 



