Colexso. — Description oj new Oryptogamic Plant*. 221 



the same fine and peculiar species of cryptogams which were 

 discovered by the one in New Zealand, were also discovered by 

 the other in New Holland. La Billardiere's large 4to. work in 

 two volumes, " Plantarum Novas Hollandia?," with nearly 300 

 drawings of new plants, was published early in 1804. Several 

 of our plants also bear, and rightly so, his name. He was the 

 naturalist attached to the expedition under D'Entrecasteaux, 

 sent out by the French Government to discover the fate of, or 

 obtain tidings of the famed, though unfortunate navigator, La 

 Perouse. 



I may also remark that these plants described by me in this 

 paper are only a part, and a very small part, of the lesser 

 cryptogams that I have collected during the past two years. 

 A large number, amounting to several hundred specimens, ex- 

 clusive of these herein described, have been separately put up 

 for Kew, and will be forwarded thither by an early ship ; not, 

 however, that all of them are distinct species, for some are more 

 than once repeated — even as I could, at more favourable and 

 suitable times and seasons, find better specimens. 



In mentioning this, a passing shade of mournful thought 

 crosses my mind : namely, that that lot will be the last, in all 

 probability, that I with my own hands shall ever collect. Age 

 now, especially when in the dense woods, reminds me that my 

 work of this nature is done. However, for more than half a 

 century, this kind of work has been with me truly a labour of 

 love ; one in which the toils, trouble, and fatigue inseparable 

 therefrom have been often forgotten, while enlarged and supe- 

 rior views of God and of nature have continually been attained. 



New Zealand has long been noticed as the home of fine and 

 beautiful ferns, but she is also the home par excellence of the 

 smaller cryptogams, which, owing to her temperate climate, 

 her many broken gullies — each containing a perennial stream- 

 let — and her dense, shaded, and ever humid evergreen forests, 

 flourish here in great perfection. It is my opinion that scarcely 

 a tithe of those charming and wondrous productions of nature 

 have yet been detected and made known. Piich harvests await 

 her enthusiastic disciples in this direction. May great success 

 and joy of heart ever attend all such. 



I have already, in some of my earlier papers read here before 

 you on former occasions, called the attention of the members of 

 this Society to the pleasing, ever-evolving wonders of Nature, 

 as seen in the close examination, the contemplation, and the 

 study of her manifold productions, aided by the microscope. 

 For while, on the one hand, it still remains true that no two 

 leaves, no two blades of grass, are exactly alike in every par- 

 ticular ; yet, on the other, the close and wondrous organization, 

 the exact symmetry, and the perfection of all her works is clear 

 and is astonishing. For whether we take, for instance, the tiny 



