III.— BOTANY. 



Art, XXXVII. — List of the Algse of the Chatham Islands, collected hy 

 H. H. Travers, Esq., and examined hy Professor John Agardh, of Lund. 

 Communicated by Baron Ferd. von Mueller, C.M.G., M.D., F.II.S,, 

 Hon. Mem. K Z.I. 



[Bead before the Wellington Philosophical Society, Isi September, 1873.] 

 Early last year I was entrusted by Mr. H. H. Travers with a collection of 

 Algse, obtained by him with a large number of other plants during his second 

 visit to the Chatham Islands. I was glad to induce my friend Professor 

 Dr. Agardh, of Lund, to undertake the laborious task of the examination of 

 these Algse, as here, not only the Museum material for comparison of this kind 

 of plants, but also the extent of our libraries for phycologic studies, are quite 

 inadequate ; and besides the systematic determination requires great circum- 

 spectness, many Algse being of wide and much interrupted oceanic distribution. 

 Moreov^er, no one could have brought to bear on this investigation the 

 unrivalled experience of the great phycologist of Lund, gained after life-long 

 special researches, which came to him as an inheritance from an illustrious 

 parent. Dr. Agardh had already, at my request, examined the few Algae 

 brought by Mr. Travers from the Chatham Islands in 1864. The latter 

 gentleman, encouraged by the well-proved discovery of a few new species on 

 that occasion, effected last year a far more extensive search. The result has 

 been that he brought together 46 genera and 62 species of these kinds of 

 oceanic plants ; and it is further gratifying to observe that he thereby added 

 now again 2 genera and 10 species to the New Zealand flora, and indeed to 

 science. Of the whole series a list is appended, arranged in accordance with 

 the sequence adopted in Dr. Hooker's handbook. Diagnoses of the new 

 generic and specific forms will soon be published in Sweden by Dr. Agardh. 

 It is, however, not likely that Mr. Travers' creditable exertions have 

 already rendered known all the sea plants of this order occurring on the shores 

 of the Chatham group ; on the contrary, it may be expected that settlers on 

 the various islands, able to watch what the gales may cast ashore at various 

 seasons, or equally able to effect dredging at various places, will still largely 

 add to the number of the Algse now recorded from thence. It is also to be 

 hoped that the enthusiastic young naturalist, to whom we mainly owe our 

 knowledge of the vegetation of the Chatham Islands, will soon gain a new and 

 fruitful field for a continuation of his important exertions. 



