A NEW NEW ZEALAND FLORA, 563 
‘his last visit to Dunedin in connection with this matter, and that he 
expressed great sympathy with their views. We may, therefore, be 
‘permitted to assume with some degree of confidence that this very 
necessary piece of work will be proceeded with at no distant date. 
The expense of the preparation of a new Flora of the Colony 
need not be very great, and it should be regarded, not as so much 
money spent, but as an advance of money that will in no great 
number of years be returned to the Treasury, for the sales of the 
work will ere long fully cover the cost of production. The immediate 
sales alone will recoup a large proportion of the outlay, for there are 
large numbers of Scientific Institutes that would at once procure 
copies of such a work, not to mention the not inconsiderable number 
of copies that would at once be absorbed in the Colony. In these 
circumstances the question of expense should not prove an obstacle 
to the immediate prosecution of a work of such importance to the 
Colony. 
It is well known that the Handbook of the New Zealand Flora 
prepared by Sir Joseph D. Hooker and published in 1864 is now out 
of print, and that avery large number of new species, and several 
new genera have been discovered and described since that date. The 
descriptions of these new additions to the flora are scattered through 
the seventeen volumes of the Transactions of the New Zealand 
Institute, and are practically inaccessible to the great majority of the 
persons interested in our native plants. These are the very cogent 
reasons why this matter should be undertaken by the Government 
without delay, and not put off to some more convenient season. 
The selection of an editor may perhaps prove a more serious 
cause of delay than the question of expense. The work may be done 
in London by Sir Joseph Hooker, or it may be done in the Colony by 
one of our local botanists. The only reason we can think of for 
employing as editor a local botanist is that the work might in that 
event be produced at a somewhat smaller cost. This plan possesses 
no other advantage, and it is weighted with most serious disadvan- 
tages. The types of the vast majority of the species are conserved in 
the Kew herbarium or other European collections. These a colonial 
editor could not examine, and without such examination his con- 
clusions would be destitute of authority, and the money spent in the 
elaboration of his opinions largely thrown away. This difficulty could 
be avoided only by sending the editor to Europe, when the expected 
saving would vanish, or by having the Kew and other European types 
transmitted to the Colony, which it is quite certain could not be done. 
In our view familiarity with the specific types is an indispensable 
qualification in an editor, and money spent in producing a Flora by 
one not possessed of this qualification would be simply wasted. Then 
it may be doubted if the Colony possesses a botanist of sufficient 
experience and authority to command for his work the confidence of 
European and American botanists. And unless the work commands 
such authority its sale would be greatly limited, and in all likelihood 
be mainly confined to the Colony. In urging this point we have no 
desire to speak in disparaging terms of local savants. We merely 
wish to shew that the experience and authority of the Director of the 
Kew Royal Gardens are vastly greater than those of any colonial 
editor, and that the work would not only be more valuable in the 
