f lants of Kew Zealand. 



GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 



" Oh, when I am saft' in mv svlvan home, 

 I tread on the pride of Greeee and Rome, 

 And when I am stretched beneath the pines, 

 Where the evening" star so holy shines, 

 I laugh at the lore and the pride of Man, 

 At the sophist schools and learned clan. 

 For what are they all, in their high conceit, 

 When Man in the bush with God may meet ? ' ' 



R. W. EllEESON. 



New Zealand is almost in tlie centre of the greatest water- 

 surface of the globe. It is indeed the Land's Ihid of the 

 world; and as such affords to the geologist, biologist, and 

 ethnologist, material of the higlrest interest. But not to tlie 

 scientist alone is it full of fascination. Any lover of Nature 

 will find here an inexhaustible store-house for his wonder and 

 admiration. Life everywliere is infinite in its variety and 

 unfailing in its resourcefulness. In New Zealand it has 

 developed many plants and animals unknown in any other 

 part of the world. Indeed, two-thirds of tlie indigenous 

 species of flowering plants are not to l)e met with elsewhere. 

 This is a much liigher percentage of local forms than can he 

 found in any other islands of approximately the same extent. 

 This unparalleled proportion of endemic species is due, partly, 

 perhaps, to the long isolation of the islands, partly to the greati 



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