11 FLORA OF NEW ZEALAND. 



adopt -widely different conclusions as to their limits and origin, from one who regards them as distinct 

 creations ; and he who denies that a plant which grows spontaneously in England and New Zealand 

 can have originated from one common parent, will reason differently on the subject of migration and 

 dispersion front him who holds an opposite view. Now the actual amount of knowledge we possess 

 on such subjects is so very limited, that few experienced naturalists are inclined to pronounce posi- 

 tively upon them, whilst the majority offer no opinion at all. I am very sensible of my own inability 

 to grapple with these great questions, of the extreme caution and judgment required in their treat- 

 ment, and of the experience necessary to enable an observer to estimate the importance of characters 

 whose value varies with every organ and in every order of plants. I think, however, that there is 

 a mean to be kept between the dogmatism with which a large class of naturalists (generally of very 

 limited experience) decide upon species, and the vagueness which characterizes the writings of others 

 in all that refers to them ; this, and the fact that most persons commence botany without any defi- 

 nite idea of what meaning naturalists attach to the term, or of its importance, have also induced me 

 to address some cautions to the student, suggested by those theoretical principles which the study of 

 the New Zealand Flora may help to develope. This I propose to do under three heads or chapters, 

 which will be devoted — 1. To the history of New Zealand Botany, showing the labours of my pre- 

 decessors, the nature and amount of the materials that have been available to myself, and the pro- 

 bable limits of the New Zealand Flora. — 2. To the views I have adopted in the descriptive part as to 

 the affinities, limits, origin, variation, distribution, and dispersion of plants generally. — 3. To the 

 illustration and development of these views by an analysis of the New Zealand Flora, and its relation 

 to those of other countries. 



CHAPTER I. 



SUMMARY OF THE HISTORY OF THE BOTANY OF NEW ZEALAND. 



For the earliest account of the plants of these Islands we are indebted to two of the most illus- 

 trious botanists of then- age, and to the voyages of the greatest of modern navigators ; for the first, 

 and to this day the finest and best illustrated herbarium that has ever been made in the islands by 

 individual exertions is that of Sir Joseph Banks and Dr. Solander, during Captain Cook's first voyage 

 in 1769. Upwards of 360 species of plants were collected during the five months that were devoted 

 to the exploration of these coasts, at various points between the Bay of Islands and Otago, including 

 the shores of Cook's Straits; and the results are admirable, whether we consider the excellence of the 

 specimens, the judgment with which they were selected, the artistic drawings by which they are il- 

 lustrated, and above all the accurate MS. descriptions and observations that accompany them. That 

 the latter, which include a complete Flora of New Zealand as far as then known, systematically ar- 

 ranged, illustrated by two hundred copper-plate engravings, and all ready for the press, should have 

 been withheld from publication by its illustrious authors, is (considering the circumstances under 



