Wellington Philosophical Society. 405 
Zealand Flora,” published in 1864, enumerates 935 species of flowering 
plants, to say nothing of the immense variety of ferns and lycopods, mosses 
and jungermannia, lichens, fungi, and sea weeds. The pages of our 
** Transactions ’’ contain many subsequent additions by Kirk, Buchanan, 
Travers, and other local botanists. 
Of the physical geography and geology of the country comparatively 
little was at that time known, while a great part of the interior was still a 
terra incognita. Even the Southern Alps had not been explored, and 
nothing was known of those glaciers since discovered by Dr. Haast, which 
are said to surpass in magnitude and grandeur the well-know glaciers of 
the European Alps. 
In the field of paleontology, however, even before that date, some 
important discoveries had been made. Mr. Mantell, the first scientific 
explorer of the moa beds of Waikouaiti and Waingongoro, had forwarded 
to Europe a magnificent collection of fossil remains, which, after ‘ exciting 
the delight of the natural philosopher and the astonishment of the multi- 
tude,” found a fitting resting-place in the galleries of the British Museum, 
and were, in due course, minutely described by Professor Owen in several 
elaborate memoirs read before the Zoological Society of London. Later 
years have yielded, in the South Island, fresh treasures to an almost 
unlimited extent, and the group of colossal moa skeletons, brought together 
through the energy of Dr. Haast, and now to be seen in the Canterbury 
Museum is, I think, one of the most striking and interesting exhibitions on 
this side of the Line. The principal recent discoveries are the wonderful 
Saurians, from the Waipara beds and elsewhere, so fully described in last 
year’s volume of ‘‘ Transactions ;’’ the gigantic bird of prey (Harpagornis 
moorei), from the tertiary deposits at Glenmark ; the great wingless goose 
(Cnemiornis caleitrans ), from Otago ; and the giant fossil penguin from the 
tertiary rocks on the west coast of Nelson, all of which have been ex- 
haustively dealt with in papers read before the various local societies, and 
published by the Institute. 
In the same year that our Society was resuscitated (1859), a real impetus 
was given to the cause of science in New Zealand by the arrival of Dr. 
Hochstetter, of the Novara Expedition, who, at the invitation of the Govern- 
ment, remained for a time in the Colony, and made a careful exploration of 
a large portion of the North Island, and of the Province of Nelson also, and 
published the results in a standard work of considerable popular interest 
and of recognized excellence. The Colony showed its appreciation of Dr. 
Hochstetter’s labours, by commencing in the various provinces systematic 
geological and topographical surveys, for the purpose of ascertaining and 
developing the natural resources of the country. Dr. Haast, who had 
