INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 17 



" Handbook," our colonial botanists have continued the 

 search, and have since then discovered 1,469 new species, so 

 that our plant census at the present date gives a total of 

 3,920 species. It would be impossible to make mention of 

 all who have contributed to this result as collectors, and 

 hardly even to indicate more than a few of those to whom 

 science is indebted for the description of the plants. The 

 literature of our post-Hookerian botany is scattered about 

 in scientific periodical literature, and, as Hooker's " Hand- 

 book " is now quite out of print, it is obvious that, as the 

 new discoveries constitute more than one-third of the total 

 known flora, it is most important that our young botanists 

 should be fully equipped with all that has been ascertained 

 by those who have preceded them. I am glad to be able 

 to announce that such a work, in the form of a new edition 

 of the " Handbook of the Flora of New Zealand," ap- 

 proved by Sir Joseph Hooker, is now in an advanced state 

 of preparation by Mr. Thomas Kirk, F.L.S., who has already 

 distinguished himself as the author of our " Forest Flora." 

 Mr. Kirk's long experience as a systematic botanist, and his 

 personal knowledge of the flora of every part of the colony, 

 acquired during the exercise of his duties as Conservator of 

 Forests, j)oint to him as the fitting man to undertake the 

 task. 



But, quite apart from the work of increasing the local 

 collections which bear on biological studies. New Zealand 

 stands out prominently in all discussions on the subject 

 of geographical biology. It stands as a lone zoological 

 region, small in area, but on equal terms, as far as regards 

 the antiquity and peculiar features of its fauna, with nearly 

 all the larger continents in the aggregate. In consequence 

 of this, many philosophical essays — such, for instance, as 

 Hooker's introductory essay in the early quarto edition of 

 the " Flora Antarctica," the essays by Hutton, Travers, and 

 others in the colony, and also the New Zealand references 

 in Wallace's works — have all contributed essentially to the 

 vital question of the causes which have brought about 

 the distribution and geograjihical affinities of plants and 

 animals, and have thus been of use in hastening the adop- 



