NEW ZEALAND, A BOTANIST’S PARADISE 
By Eaprert H. WALKER 
Associate Curator, Department of Botany, U. S. National Museum 
[With 10 plates] 
INTRODUCTION 
The wisest traveler learns as much as possible before a trip, sees 
all he can during his journey, and corrects and enlarges his knowledge 
by further reading and inquiry after returning home. This article is 
the outgrowth of the author’s short but full visit in New Zealand, 
which was ideal in nearly every respect except for lack of advance 
knowledge of the country, especially of its botany. It suggests what 
the writer would have liked to know in advance but had to learn on 
the trip and after it. The suggestions given here for further reading 
may be of interest, not only to the fortunate few who will visit New 
Zealand in person, but the greater number who may do so vicariously 
by reading and by listening to those who have gone. 
The plants of New Zealand can hardly fail to gain the attention of 
the visitor, and the student of New Zealand will find abundant refer- 
ence to them in his reading. People in an industrial country may 
ignore the plant life, but those in an agricultural land like New 
Zealand cannot escape the imprint of the vegetation on their 
lives. New Zealand is a land of enthusiastic and competent amateur 
naturalists, and its professional botanists are outstanding. The visitor 
will find a local naturalist in nearly every town or center, who is eager 
to share his specialties with the stranger and to show him the offerings 
of the field. ‘The traveler to New Zealand will probably first meet 
the introduced flora which dominates the landscape in the inhabited 
parts. Only when he visits the more remote and undisturbed areas 
will he see many of the native plants. If he has an economic or 
agricultural bias, probably the grasslands, the backbone of New 
Zealand’s economy, will impress him most. (See pl. 9.) If he is 
conservation-minded, the sight of the vast area of shrubland and 
fernland (Pterrdium aquilinum var. esculentum) will make him pain- 
fully aware of man’s destruction of the native forest. But the soul 
of the pure botanist, undisturbed by problems of economics and con- 
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