FLORA 
OF 
NEW ZU Ab AN. 
I nave long felt earnestly desirous of promoting a love and knowledge of the Science of 
Botany in those English Colonies which it has been my good fortune to visit; and the 
present work offers me in part an opportunity of doing so; for though it was called for by 
professed Botanists, and is therefore more scientific than a popular Flora should be, I have 
added to the technical characters such English descriptions as will enable the resident to 
name his plants, and 1 have written these in the simplest language that can be applied to 
Botany. To make my object clearer, 1 shall, before commencing, explain the nature and 
character of this work, and, addressing myself more especially to the Colonist, point out 
what is the course he should pursue in commencing the study of Botany. 
I have endeavoured to give, m ‘The Flora of New Zealand,’ accurate descriptions of all 
the Flowering Plants and Ferns, natives of the three islands, with their localities, and some 
general information respecting them. The Mosses, Hepaticee, Lichens, Fungi, etc., are so 
numerous, and objects of so special a study, that they cannot all be described. As the 
greater proportion of them are common to other countries, and published in other works, 
few, except new species, will be characterized or figured here; but all will be introduced 
with references, their habitats, and additional information where necessary. 
The state of botanical science demands Latin descriptions of the plants: this is all 
that Botanists require; but I have invariably added, in English, as much as will enable the 
Colonist to identify them, provided he knows the rudiments of Botany. Although England 
holds so many more Colonies than any other nation, of none has a Flora been published: I 
. know from experience how great a desideratum this is, and I have heard the want deplored 
in Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand, especially. The Great Exhibition of 1851 has 
forcibly shown this, the vegetable productions of our Colonies being almost invariably so 
badly named, that the often valuable information given with them, and collected at great 
cost and trouble, is, in most cases of novelty, useless in England. 
