128 DieffenhacKs New Zealand and the Neio Zealanders, 



" The value of New Zealand as a British colony cannot be estimated too 

 highly. For a certain class of colonists it is preferable to New South Wales, 

 which will never be any thing else than a large pasture ground. It is si- 

 tuated near numerous groups of interesting and important islands, the Navi- 

 gator's, the Friendly, and Society Islands, which are rapidly advancing in 

 civilisation and peaceful commerce; and some of which already aiford sugar, 

 coffee, and other colonial produce, and requii'e in return articles of European 

 manufacture. It is a country suited particularly to Europeans, from the 

 nature of its climate and soil, and seems to be destined to become a prosperous 

 agricultural and manufacturing state; but only a laborious peasantry can 

 clear the road for this, and render the colony, in time, an entrepot of commerce 

 or a depot for transit trade and a manufacturing country, none of which it is 

 at present." ("Vol. i. p. 18.) 



The chief drawbacks to New Zealand, as a colony, arise from the high price 

 charged for the lands ; the greater part of which, Dr. DiefFenbach says, " is 

 already disposed of to private individuals and to the New Zealand Com- 

 pany." (Vol. i. p. 18.) 



Thus far with reference to gardeners who may intend to emigrate. We 

 shall next glance at the chapter on the " Botany of New Zealand." " The area 

 of the three islands is 51,384',000 acres [the British Islands contain 57,952,489], 

 and the total number of plants at present known, including the marine plants, 

 does not amount to more than 632 species [those of the British Isles exceed 

 9000 species.] This small number is not perhaps due to our little acquaint- 

 ance with New Zealand, and to the want of a sufficient botanical exploration 

 of the country; for, although there is no doubt that some more species will be 

 added, when we shall have examined the rugged and snowy mountain crests 

 of the middle island, yet it appears to me that their number will not ma- 

 terially alter the asserted fact, that, for the extent of its surface, and for the 

 varied localities which it offers to the growth of plants, — as moimtains 

 reaching above the limits of lasting snow, stony and exposed ridges, burning 

 and extinct volcanoes, valleys and ravines with a fertile soil (where moisture 

 and moderate warmth, so favourable to vegetable life, continually prevail), 

 volcanic table-land, swamps and morasses, downs on the sea-coast, &c., — the 

 flora of New Zealand is distinguished by a scantiness of species. In this 

 latter respect the vegetable corresponds with the animal kingdom, which, 

 however, is still more deficient. Several zealous botanists have bestowed 

 their labour on plants of this country" (Vol. i. p. 419.) 



" Although in its flora. New Zealand has some relationship with the two 

 large continents between which it is situated, America and Australia, and 

 even possesses a number of species identical with those of Europe, without 

 the latter being referable to an introduction by Europeans, yet the greater 

 number of species, and even genera, are peculiar to the country, which as- 

 tonishing fact had already forced itself upon the minds of the first explorers. 

 New Zealand, with some of the adjacent islands (the Chatham, Auckland, 

 and Macquarie's), forms a botanical centre. It is sufficiently distant from 

 both continents to preserve its botanical peculiarities, and it offers in that 

 respect the most striking instance of an acknowledged fact in all branches of 

 natural history, viz., that the different regions of the globe are endowed with 

 peculiar forms of animal and vegetable life. 



"The number of species at present known is 632, of which number 314 are 

 dicotyledonous or endogenous plants, and the rest, or 318, monocotyledonous 

 and cellular plants. To what can this remarkable disproportion be due ; so 

 contrary to what is the case in other countries ? Is it owing to the geo- 

 logical fact that New Zealand is of recent formation, and that in such 

 countries the plants which are regarded as inferior, the cellular and crypto- 

 gamous plants, make their appearance before the more developed flowering 

 ones. Without discussing this difficult question, I merely observe that the 

 visitor to the distant shores of New Zealand will be struck by the scantiness 

 of annual and flowering plants, of which only a very few possess vivid colours. 



