INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. XXIX 
from their size, strength, and cutting foliage, arrest the traveller’s progress through the forest ; 
Orchidee of many kinds carpet the ground in spring with beautiful blossoms; the heaths are gay 
with Epacridee ; herbs, trees, and shrubs of Composite meet the eye in every direction; whilst the 
Myrtacee and Leguminose are characteristics both of the arboreous and shrubby vegetation. The 
difference is so marked, that I retain the most vivid recollection of the physiognomy of the Tasma- 
nian mountains and valleys, but a very indifferent one of the New Zealand forest, where all is, 
comparatively speaking, blended into one green mass, relieved at the Bay of Islands by the symme- 
trical crown of the Tree-fern, the pale green fountain of foliage of the Dacrydium cupressinum, and 
the poplar-like Knightia overtopping all. It is true that there is more variety in the latter country 
than is expressed by this selection of a few individuals, and a little reflection recalls a vast number 
of noble, and some beautiful botanical objects, but with the exception of groves of the Kaikatea Pine 
(Podocarpus dacrydioides) on the swampy river banks, the Pomaderris and Leptospermum on the 
open hill-sides, and Dammara on their crests, there is little to arrest the botanist’s first glance; and 
nothing in the massing or grouping of the species of any Natural Order renders that Order an 
important element in the general landscape, or gives individuality to any of its parts, by flowers 
and gaiety, or by foliage and gloom. The same»features prevail even so far south as Lord Auckland’s 
Group, where Dracophyllum, Coprosma, Metrosideros, Panag, and a shrubby Veronica unite to form 
an evergreen mantle: and I suspect, from the accounts I have heard and read, that they are repeated 
on the damp cool coasts of Chili, to the north of the region of the sombre Beech-forests which 
clothe the Fuegian islands. 
A. Plants peculiar to New Zealand. 
In analysing the Pheenogamic Flora of New Zealand, the first important result is the large 
amount of absolutely peculiar or endemic plants, of which there are 26 genera and 507 species, or 
more than two-thirds of the whole. Of these, the greater proportion are Exogens, as was to be 
expected, from the Grasses, Cyperacee, and water-plants being more widely diffused than any other 
families. 
The Petaloid Endogens, on the other hand, are remarkably local, especially the Orchidee, of 
which only two species, out of thirty-nine, are found elsewhere (in Tasmania). This, however, is so 
invariably the case with Orchidee, that the proportion of species in the globe to other Natural Orders 
is perhaps greatly underrated. Nearly all the New Zealand genera of Orchids are natives of 
Australia, and most of them are otherwise peculiar to that continent; the ubiquitous Spiranthes is the 
most marked exception, as Australia contains the only widely distributed species in that vast Natural 
Order, namely, S. rosea, which however is replaced in New Zealand by S. Nove-Zelandie. 
The next peculiar Order is Conifere, whose twelve species are all endemic*: it is very widely 
spread, and many of its species in the northern hemisphere have wide though strictly defined ranges. 
In this respect the southern species differ from the northern, for they are local; thus several occupy 
very limited areas indeed in Tasmania and elsewhere, of which the Huon and Norfolk Island Pines 
are remarkable instances: Dammara australis is confined to the northern half of the northern 
island of New Zealand, and other species only grow on a few lofty mountains. Of the New Zealand 
senera, two are peculiar to it, Australia, and the Malay Archipelago (Dacrydium and Phyllocladus) ; 
* Except perhaps Phyllocladus, one species of which is very closely allied to the Tasmanian P. aspleniifolia. 
