INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. y 
and Decaisne in the ‘ Annales des Sciences Naturelles*,’ and the beautiful “Choix de Plantes de la 
Nouvelle-Zelande,” published in 1846, a work accompanied with plates of rare excellence as botanical 
drawings, and with a careful enumeration+ of all known New Zealand plants, compiled from the 
collections in the Paris Museum, and from M. Richards and Cunningham’s Floras. 
In 1847 H.M.St.V. Acheron was commissioned by Captain Stokes, R.N., for the survey of New 
Zealand, to explore the western and southern coasts; and we are indebted to the exertions of the 
eminent hydrographer of the navy, Sir Francis Beaufort, for the selection of a naturalist as surgeon 
to the expedition. My friend Dr. Lyall, in whose company 1 had formerly botanized in the Bay of 
Islands during the Antarctic Expeditionf, was selected for the service ; and devoting himself, like Mr. 
Menzies, with indefatigable zeal to the lower Orders especially, he amassed the most beautiful and 
important collections in these branches of botany, that have ever been formed ; besides making con- 
siderable discoveries in Pheenogamic plants, and collecting many that had previously only been 
gathered by Banks and Solander and the Forsters. 
As far as the discovery of species is concerned, the above enumeration brings me down to the 
present state of our knowledge of the New Zealand Flora; but it remains for me to observe that 
within the last three years, indeed since the announcement of this work being forthcoming, I have 
been favoured with more than a dozen collections from various parts of the island. Of new gleaners 
in the field, I would especially mention Dr. Monro, Mr. Knight, the Rev. Mr. Taylor, Captain 
Drury, Mr. Jolliffe, Captain D. Rough, and Lieutenant-Colonel Bolton; all of whom have sent 
valuable contributions. It is true that these contain little novelty, but they throw light on the 
distribution of the species, and afford materials for tracing their geographical limits. 
From these materials the “Flora of New Zealand’ has been worked up: its probable complete- 
ness may be judged of by the fact that the islands have been botanized on by upwards of thirty-five 
individuals, whose specimens have (with a few unimportant exceptions) all passed under my eye. 
The Flora of the Northern Island has been tolerably well examined, so far as its flowering plants are 
concerned ; though there remains a good deal to be done on the west coast, especially in the neigh- 
bourhood of Mount Egmont. Dr. Lyall alone has collected in the Southern Island, or on the west 
coast north of Dusky Bay. The Middle Island has been visited by few explorers, its north and east 
coasts alone having been botanized : the west and the whole mountain range require a careful survey ; 
and considering how many Auckland and Campbell Islands plants are still strangers to New Zealand, 
it cannot be doubted that much remains to be discovered there. Excepting from the above-men- 
tioned tracts, I do not expect much novelty amongst flowering plants, for the following reasons :— 
1, there is a remarkable sameness in the flora throughout large tracts$ ; 2, because out of the 
730 flowering plants known, there are scarcely one hundred that have not been gathered by several 
individuals; 3, because the collections I have lately received, though some of them are extensive, 
and from scarcely visited localities, yet contain little or no novelty. With Cryptogamia the case is 
widely different; and it is difficult to estimate the vast number, especially of Mosses, Hepaticee, and 
* Amnales des Sciences Naturelles, August, 1844. 
T In this enumeration upwards of 500 species of flowering plants are named, but fully one hundred of these 
are synonyms, introduced species, or erroneous ones of Cunningham and others. 
i In the above list I have not thought it necessary to allude to the collections made at the Bay of Islands by 
Dr. Lyall and myself in the Antarctic Expedition: they contained no novelty amongst flowering plants, not known to 
Mr. Colenso and Dr, Sinclair, with whom I spent many happy days. Amongst Cryptogamic plants I collected much 
that was then new, but most of the species have since been found elsewhere. 
§ In this respect New Zealand contrasts remarkably with Tasmania. 
