INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. xxix 



from their size, strength, and cutting foliage, arrest the traveller's progress through the forest; 

 Orchidece of many kinds carpet the ground in spring with beautiful blossoms; the heaths are gay 

 with Epacridece ; herbs, trees, and shrubs of Composites meet the eye in every direction ; whilst the 

 Myrtacece and Leguminosce are characteristics both of the arboreous and shrubby vegetation. The 

 difference is so marked, that I retain the most vivid recollection of the physiognomy of the Tasma- 

 nian mountains and valleys, but a very indifferent one of the New Zealand forest, where all is, 

 comparatively speaking, blended into one green mass, relieved at the Bay of Islands by the symme- 

 trical crown of the Tree-fern, the pale green fountain of foliage of the Dacrydium cupressinum, and 

 the poplar-like Knightia overtopping all. It is true that there is-more variety in the latter country 

 than is expressed by this selection of a few individuals, and a little reflection recalls a vast numbeT 

 of noble, and some beautiful botanical objects, but with the exception of groves of the Kaikatea Pine 

 (Podocarpus dacrydioides) on the swampy river banks, the Pomaderris and Leptospermum on the 

 open hill-sides, and Dammar a on their crests, there is little to arrest the botanist's first glance ; and 

 nothing in the massing or grouping of the species of any Natural Order renders that Order an 

 important element in the general landscape, or gives individuality to any of its parts, by flowers 

 and gaiety, or by foliage and gloom. The same features prevail even so far south as Lord Auckland's 

 Group, where Dracophyllum, Coprosma, Metrosideros, Panax, and a shrubby Veronica, unite to form 

 an evergreen mantle : and I suspect, from the accounts I have heard and read, that they are repeated 

 on the damp cool coasts of Chili, to the north of the region of the sombre Beech-forests which 

 clothe the Fuegian islands. 



A. Plants pecidiar to New Zealand. 



In analysing the Phsenogamic Flora of New Zealand, the first important result is the large 

 amount of absolutely peculiar or endemic plants, of which there are 26 genera and 507 species, or 

 more than two-thirds of the whole. Of these, the greater proportion are Exogens, as was to be 

 expected, from the Grasses, Cyperacece, and water-plants being more widely diffused than any other 

 famines. 



The Petaloid Endogens, on the other hand, are remarkably local, especially the Orchidece, of 

 which only two species, out of thirty-nine, are found elsewhere (in Tasmania) . This, however, is so 

 invariably the case with Orchidece, that the proportion of species in the globe to other Natural Orders 

 is perhaps greatly underrated. Nearly all the New Zealand genera of Orchids are natives of 

 Australia, and most of them arejOtherwise peculiar to that continent ; the ubiquitous Spiranthes is the 

 most marked exception, as Australia contains the only widely distributed species in that vast Natural 

 Order, namely, S. rosea, which however is replaced in New Zealand by 5. Novce-ZelanduB. 



The next peculiar Order is Conifer ce, whose twelve species are all endemic*: it is very widely 

 spread, and many of its species in the northern hemisphere have wide though strictly defined ranges. 

 In this respect the southern species differ from the northern, for they are local ; thus several occupy 

 very limited areas indeed in Tasmania and elsewhere, of which the Huon and Norfolk Island Pines 

 are remarkable instances : Dammara australis is - confined to the northern half of the northern 

 island of New Zealand, and other species only grow on a few lofty mountains. Of the New Zealand 

 genera, two are peculiar to it, Australia, and the Malay Archipelago [Dacrydium and PhyUocladus) ■. 



perhaps Phjllocladus, one species of which is very closely allied to the Tasmanian P. asplemijbl-ia. 



