334 Transactions. — Botariy. 



New Zealand are not — in either country — the plants which give a character 

 to the vegetation. When I visited Australia in 1873, I explored about half 

 of the colony of Victoria, and a large portion of New South Wales. In 

 this extensive tract of country, containing two or three thousand species, I 

 only observed about thirty or forty New Zealand plants, and they were by 

 no means abundant. The common plants of the two countries are so very 

 different, that I am forced to the conclusion that we must look elsewhere 

 than Australia for the true relationship of our native flora. The space at 

 my disposal here does not permit of any further reference to this very inter- 

 esting subject, but I hope to return to it on some future occasion. 



The Naturalized Plants. — No account, however short, of the plants of 

 Canterbmy would be complete without some reference to those plants which 

 have been introduced through the agency of colonization. Wherever settle- 

 ment extends the native plants rapidly die out, and their places are filled 

 by British and other exotic plants, mostly of a very weedy nature. Indeed, 

 the commonest species of plants in the province, at the present time, are 

 introduced weeds such as the sorrel, Eumex acetosella, the white clover, 

 Trifolium repens, and numerous kinds of British grasses. 



These introduced plants are not all small herbs, shrubs are fairly repre- 

 sented, and trees are not altogether wanting. There can, I think, be no 

 doubt whatever that the native vegetation will eventually be almost, if not 

 entirely, exterminated, and the floral features of the country altogether 

 changed through the introduction of these foreign weeds. When we con- 

 sider that these plants have nearly all been introduced within the last 

 twenty years, it is certainly surprising that they have already become so 

 abundant. 



The rapidity with which these introduced plants have spread over the 

 province of Canterbm-y is indeed an extraordinary circumstance. A hst 

 of the introduced plants of Canterbury was laid before this Institute by my 

 father on the 4th October, 1871 ; and I now furnish an additional list, 

 making a total of 250 species. Most of the species contained in these two 

 lists are common British weeds, very few of them possessing much beauty. 



Along the roadside, throughout the province, may be found abundance 

 of such plants as the common knot-weed. Polygonum dri/andri. The chick- 

 weed, Stellaria media. The shepherd's purse, Capsella hursa-jMstoris. The 

 common docks, Piumex ohtusifolius and Pi. crispus. The so-called Cape-weed, ■ 

 Hi/pochcEris radicata. The wild stork's bill, Erodium circutarium. The May- 

 weed, Matricaria chamomilla. The mullem, Verhascum thapsiis, and the 

 hemlock, Conium macidatum. The most useful members of the introduced 

 flora are the grasses, which abound everywhere, number more than forty 

 species, and are still increasing in numbers. The common English water- 



