XIV FLORA OF NEW ZEALAND. 



many hundred specimens of the plant, gathered in all parts of the south temperate hemisphere, and 

 have found, after a most laborious comparison, that I could not define its characters with sufficient 

 comprehensiveness from a study of its New Zealand phases alone, nor understand the latter without 

 examining those of Australia, South Africa, and South America. The resident may find two varie- 

 ties of this and of many other plants, retaining their distinctive characters within his own range of ob- 

 servation (for that varieties often do so, and for a very uncertain period, both when wild and also in 

 gardens, is notoiious), and he may perhaps have to travel far beyond his own island to find the link 

 I have found, in the chain of forms that unites the most dissimilar states of Lomaria procera ; but he 

 can no more argue thence for the specific difference of these, than he can for a specific difference be- 

 tween the aboriginal of New Zealand and himself, because he may not find hiterrnediate forms of his 

 race on the spot. TVe do not know why varieties should in many cases thus retain their indivi- 

 duality over great areas, and lose them in others ; but the fact that they do so proves that no deduc- 

 tions drawn from local observations on widely distributed plants can be considered conclusive. To 

 the amateur these questions are perhaps of very trifling importance, but they are of great moment to 

 the naturalist who regards accurately-defined floras as the means for investigating the great pheno- 

 mena of vegetation ; he has to seek truth amid errors of observation and judgment, and the resulting 

 chaos of synonymy which has been accumulated by thoughtless aspirants to the questionable honour 

 of being the first to name a species*. 



There are many causes which render it extremely difficult to determine the limits of species, and 

 in some genera the obstacles appear to increase, the more the materials for studying them multiply, 

 and the more we follow our analysis of them into detail ; hence the botanist is often led on to an 

 indefinite multiplication of species (with increased difficulty of determining those already established) , 

 or to a reduction of all to a few, or to one variable species. My own impression is, that the progress 

 of botany points to the conclusion that in many genera we must ultimately adopt much larger views 

 of the variation of species than heretofore, and that the number of supposed kinds of plants is (as I 

 shall indicate elsewhere) greatly over-estimated ; if it be not so, we must either admit that species are 

 not definable, or that there are hidden characters throughout all classes of the vegetable kingdom, of 

 which the botanist has no cognizance, and towards the acquirement of which, if they are ever to be 

 revealed, all efforts in the direction in which we have been advancing appear to be vain. Could sys- 

 tematists as a body be accused of carrying out their investigations in an unphilosophical manner or 

 spirit, or without due attention to all the modes of testing the validity of characters, afforded by the 

 study of living and dried plants, by direct observation, and by experiment, there might be hopes of 

 such a revelation ; but such hopes are inconsistent with the great advances that have been made in 

 systematic botany, which, having all tended to a more perfect knowledge of the affinities of plants, we 

 are assured have been the effect of progress in the right direction. 



Of the genera to which I here allude as variable, there are many in New Zealandf; some of 



* The time however is happily past when it was considered an honour to be the namer of a plant ; the bo- 

 tanist who has the true interests of science at heart, not only feels that the thrusting of an uncalled-for synonym into 

 the nomenclature of science is an exposure of his own ignorance and deserves censure, but that a wider range 

 of knowledge and a greater depth of study are required, to prove those dissimilar forms to be identical, which any 

 superficial observer can separate by words and a name. 



f M. Bory de St. Vincent has observed (Voyage dans les Quatre principales Ties des Mers d'Afrique) with 

 reference to insular floras, that their species are generally variable, an hypothesis scarcely compatible with the fact 

 that the proportion of species to genera in islands is always small, because the proportion of imported plants, which 

 is considerable in an island, is made up of species of different genera, having no affinity with one another, and 



