BOTANICAL DISCOVERY. XX1X 
but his own share in the work of botanical exploration was by no means 
small. That he fully grasped the leading features of plant-distribution 
in the South Island is evidenced by his essay “ On the Geographical: 
Botany of New Zealand,” printed in the first volume of the Transactions 
of the New Zealand Institute. After his removal to Wellington in 
1866, the official duties appertaining to the Geological Survey and 
Colonial Museum, &c., left little time for botanical research ; but he 
has never missed an opportunity of promoting the efforts of others. 
In fact, it can be said that from the time of his arrival in the colony 
up to the present day no attempt has been made to investigate its 
flora which has not had his countenance and support. His services 
to botanical science are fitly commemorated in the remarkable endemic 
genus Hectorella, and in the magnificent Senecio Hectori, one of the 
finest of the arborescent Composite of the colony. 
In 1863 Mr. H. H. Travers visited the Chatham Islands for the 
purpose of investigating its flora, at that time only known from a few 
plants collected by Dr. E. Dieffenbach in 1840. He remained in the 
group for several months, and succeeded. in forming large collec- 
tions. On his return these were placed in the hands of the late 
Baron Mueller, of Melbourne, who published the results in his “ Vege- 
tation of the Chatham Islands,” issued in 1864. In it Baron Mueller 
enumerates 129 species, of which sixty-two are phenogams and sixty- 
seven cryptogams. Seven new species were described. The work 
forms an important addition to the botanical literature of the: colony. 
but New Zealand botanists entirely repudiate the peculiar views enter- 
tained by the author respecting the circumscription of many of the 
species. For instance, he merges the whole of the species of Veronica 
found in the Chathams, together with thirteen others from New Zealand, 
into one collective species, to which he gives the new name of V. Forster. 
An excellent account of Mr. Travers’s visit was contributed by himselt 
to the first volume of the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute. 
In 1871 he again visited the group, adding largely to his previous 
list. On this occasion his collections were worked out by Mr. Buchanan 
in his paper on “ The Flowering-plants and Ferns of the Chatham 
{slands.” Mr. H. H. Travers has also made collections on the Tararua 
Mountains, the Nelson mountains, and in other localities. 
The important discoveries made in the interior of the South Island 
during the ten years following the publication of the “ Flora Nove 
Zealandize,” and the increasing demand for a concise and inexpensive 
account of the plants of the colony, induced the New Zealand Govern- 
ment to make arrangements with Sir J. D. Hooker for the publication 
of such a work. The first part, containing the flowering-plants and 
ferns, appeared in 1864, under the title of “Handbook of the New 
Zealand Flora ” ; the concluding part, comprising the mosses, Hepatice, 
and lower cryptogams, followed in 1867. Its publication at once 
showed the great advance which had been made in elucidating the 
