XXV1U FLORA OF NEW ZEALAND. 



their allies in Australia. A paucity of Grasses, an absence of Legwninosce , an abundance of bushes 

 and Ferns, and a want of annual plants, are the prevalent features in the open country, whilst the 

 forests abound in Cryptogamia, and in phsenogamic plants with obscure green flowers, and very 

 often of obscure and little-known Natural Orders*. 



Considerably more than two hundred of the New Zealand species have either unisexual or 

 polygamous flowers, or are otherwise incomplete in their reproductive organs, even when their floral 

 envelopes are more or less developed. The number of Natural Orders f is large in proportion to the 

 genera ; being as 92 to 282, that is, about one to three : while the genera are to the species as 282 

 to 730, each genus having on the average only two and a half species ; whence it follows that there 

 are, on the average, but eight species to each Natural Order. 



Considering these circumstances, and the additional one, that very many of the Natural Orders 

 cannot be recognized by the flower alone, by fruit alone, or by habit or foliage, it may, I think, safely 

 be said that the New Zealand Flora is, for its extent, much the most difficult on the globe to a 

 beginner. Indeed, the mere fact that the student must know a Natural Order for every eight species 

 he has to investigate, offers as direct a means of proving this by comparison as any datum could do, 

 for the probable proportion of species of plants on the globe to the known Natural Orders, exceeds 

 three hundred and fifty to one; in Tasmania the proportions are eleven to one, and in Great Britain 

 they average fourteen to one. 



It is, therefore, not surprising that the vegetation of New Zealand should be wanting in any 

 conspicuous or prevailing feature, which is the case to so great a degree that, excluding Ferns, I do 

 not think any two botanists would, without investigation, characterize any part of the islands as the 

 region of any particular order, genus, or species. The Coniferce, when known, prove to be perhaps 

 the most universally prevalent natural family ; but the majority of their species, not being social, but 

 growing intermixed with other trees, give no character to the landscape. The vast number of trees, 

 the paucity of herbaceous plants, and the almost total absence of annuals, are the most remarkable 

 features of the Flora ; for of flowering trees, including shrubs above twenty feet high, there are upwards 

 of 113 J, or nearly one-sixth of the Flora, besides 156 shrubs and plants with woody stems. Of the 

 largest Natural Orders, so far as regards the number of species, the individuals are often so few, 

 that the botanist would form a very erroneous estimate of the numerical force of such in the whole 

 island from an examination of some of its parts only : thus the Orders most numerous in species are, 

 Composite, 90; Cyperacece, 66 ; Gramineee, 53; Scrophularinece, 40; Orchidece, 39; Rubiaces>, 26; 

 and Epacridece and Umbellifera, each 23 ; none of which can be said to form prevalent features in 

 the landscape, though none are rare. 



In the neighbouring island of Tasmania, where the same Orders predominate to a great extent, 

 the case is widely different : there the Grasses everywhere form a prominent feature ; the Cyperacece, 



* My first day's collections about the Bay of Islands included Corynocarpus, Alseuosmia, MeUcylus, Drimys, 

 Arhtotelia, Coriaria, Gunnera, Carpodetus, Grfeelitiia, Corolda, Geniostoma, Lauretta, Hedycarya, Freyeineiia, Rhi- 

 pogonum, and Astelia ; all belonging to small, obscure, or little-known Natural Orders, many long considered of 

 dubious affinity : besides a host of obscure genera of little-known families. ' 



-j- It is to be observed, that I have adopted as few Natural Orders as possible ; fewer, I think, than I should 

 have done in a work on general botany ; but I was anxious to diminish as much as possible the labours of the 

 beginner. Had I adopted all the Orders that have been proposed, there would be upwards of a hundred of flowering 

 plants in New Zealand. 



% In England there are not more than 35' uative trees, out of a flora of upwards of 1400 species. 



