XXXIV HISTORY OF 
Professor J. H. Scott, of Dunedin, visited Macquarie Island in 
1880.; On his return he published an excellent account of the fauna 
and flora (Trans. N.Z. Inst., xv., 484), including a catalogue of the 
plants observed by him. 
Among others who have interested themselves with New Zealand 
botany between the publication of the “ Handbook” and the year 
1895 may be mentioned the late Mr. Justice Gillies, Captain Hutton, 
T. H. Potts, C. Traill, S. Percy Smith, J. Rutland, P. Goyen, Captain 
G. Mair, A. T. Urquhart, H. Tryon, Archdeacon Walsh, T. W. Kirk, 
J. W. Hall, J. Tennant, and J. Baber. 
In 1896 Dr. L. Diels, of Berlin, published in Engler’s Botanical 
Year-book a paper entitled ‘“‘ Vegetations-biologie von Neu-Seeland,” 
which deserves special mention on account of being the first at- 
tempt to prepare an account of the flora of the colony from an 
cecological standpoint. Although based entirely on herbarium ma- 
terial and on the observations of other botanists and collectors, and 
consequently containing errors both of omission and commission, it 
is nevertheless a work of considerable originality and merit, and is 
well worth the attention of all students of the flora. 
Since 1897 by far the most important contributions to our knowledge 
of the New Zealand flora have been made by Dr. L. Cockayne, and I 
regret that only brief mention can be made of his work here. In three 
papers “On the Seedling Forms of New Zealand Phanerogams and 
their Development” (Trans. N.Z. Inst., xxxi., 354; xxxil., 83; and 
xxili., 264) he describes with considerable detail the seedling leaves of 
many New Zealand plants, giving numerous figures, and in several 
instances tracing the gradual development of the foliage into the 
mature stage. Much information is given respecting the life-history 
of the species treated of, particularly in the genera Carmichelia and 
Veronica. In the latter genus, most of the species with scale-like 
leaves are very fully discussed, and their early foliage described. In 
a paper on the “ Plant-geography of the Waimakariri River-basin ” 
(Trans. N.Z. Inst., xxxii., 95) Dr. Cockayne makes the first attempt 
in the colony to treat the flora of a district from an cecological point of 
view. It was followed by his “ Account of the Plant-covering of 
Chatham Island ” (Trans. N.Z. Inst., xxxiv., 242), a publication which 
has thrown a flood of light on the nature and composition of the flora 
of this seldom-visited appanage of New Zealand. Lastly, the volume 
of Transactions for 1904 contains an elaborate paper on “ An Excursion 
to the Southern Islands of New Zealand,” in which he not only gives 
a detailed account of the “ plant-formations ”’ which make up the 
flora of the islands visited, but also contributes a list of the flowering- 
plants and ferns, and a sketch of the physiography, geology, climate, 
&c. These papers, which mark an entirely new epoch in the history 
of botanical investigation in New Zealand, will induce all students 
of the flora to look forward with impatience for the appearance of the 
