LIBRARY 
NEW YORK 
BOTANICAL 
GARDEN 
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 
Tuts little book is based on a series of ten articles 
written by me for the Lyttelton Times, Dunedin 
Evening Star, and Auckland Star, which appeared 
during the months of April and May, 1907. To the 
above journals I here tender my hearty thanks for 
permission to reproduce those parts of the original 
articles that seemed suitable. 
The text as it now appears has been changed in no 
small degree—much has been rewritten and amplified, 
and several additional chapters have been added, parts 
of two being founded on a paper I published originally 
in the Young Men’s Magazine; while Chapter IX, 
dealing with introduced plants, is altogether new. 
As for the book itself, it is the first attempt to deal 
with the plant-life of the New Zealand biological region 
as a whole on ecological lines. The subject is pur- 
posely treated in the most elementary manner; techni- 
calities are studiously avoided as far as possible, the 
scientific names of the plants excepted, as the use of 
these is obviously unavoidable. 
In the chapter dealing with the cultivation of New 
Zealand plants special reference is made to school 
—gardens, for the guidance of such teachers as may use 
this book. 
ee The subject-matter is, in part, the outcome of my 
_ “delightful wanderings for many years over the length 
and breadth of the Dominion, studying the while the 
