98 LINDSAY, ON THE PROTOPHYTA OF NEW ZEALAND. 
of Dunedin, in the province of Otago.* There is here, there- 
fore, for the local botanist, not only a most extensive and 
varied, but almost untrodden, field of research; and it is 
with a view to incite him to cultivate this most promising 
field that I venture to offer the following remarks. While 
the work of collection is comparatively easy, that of examina- 
tion is far from being so. All the groups. in question 
require the laborious care of the skilled microscopist ; and 
labourers of such a class are not numerous, either in a new 
colony or at home. But there is no reason why collectors 
should not be numerous—why they should not supply the 
materials for work to the systematist in his cabinet. The 
collector, and the examiner or describer, are necessary com- 
plements to each other. While the latter seldom has oppor- 
tunity to collect over wide areas, he can utilise the materials 
supplied by the less skilled travellers who have such oppor- 
tunity: so that each has his appropriate and indispensable 
place in the advancement of science. 
I. Diatomacee. 
Considerable numbers are recorded as natives of Australia, 
having been there systematically looked for and examined. 
My friend Dr. Roberts, of Sydney, has, for instance, long de- 
voted himself to the examination of the diatoms of Australia 
and its adjoining seas; and the addition of numerous new 
and interesting forms has already been the result of his single 
labours. But in New Zealand I am aware of no resident 
botanist, and no traveller save myself, who has given himself 
even the trouble of limited or superficial collection. In one 
of his letters to me (of date June 6th, 1861) Dr. Greville, 
however, says, “Some very interesting gatherings of them 
have already come from that country ;” but I can find no 
trace of any published record thereof. In these circum- 
stances, the following list of species, collected by myself in a 
very limited area, and under most unfavorable conditions, 
may be useful to the local botanist, stimulating and encou- 
raging his zeal, perseverance, and industry, by showing what 
* “On the Diatomacee of New Zealand,” ‘Journal of Linnean Society,’ 
‘Botany,’ vol. ix, p. 129. Mr. Carruthers, F.L.S., of the British Museum, 
writes me [letter 14th Dec., 1866], “I believe no list of New Zealand dia- 
toms has been published except your own. Greville had gatherings from 
New Zealand, and had distributed some slides, so that some New Zealand 
diatoms were in this way known; but only in this way, I believe.” A 
scrutiny of Rabenhorst’s ‘Flora Europa Algarum’ (1864) reveals only 
three recorded New Zealand forms; viz., Cocconeis celata, Grev.; Navicula 
Johnsoniana, Grev., and Hyalosira Beswickii, Norman; whereof the two 
former were described in this Journal and the last in Pritchard’s ‘ Infusoria.’ 
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