THE "FLORA OF NEW ZEALAND. 5 1 



The list of foreign, plants now widely naturalised in the colony- 

 is already very extensive, and to be in any way complete a new Flora 

 must contain descriptions of these. We do not know whether it is 

 the author's intention to include these, but it is plain that their 

 omission will detract from the value and utility of his work. Such 

 plants as chickweeds, docks, thistles, cat's-ear, horehowud, and numerous 

 grasses are now very plentiful in all the settled parts of the country, 

 while not a few have invaded purely pastoral country and are as well 

 established there, and to all appearance as permanent denizens of the 

 country as most of the truly indigenous species. No doubt the 

 inclusion of the chief introduced species will considerably swell the 

 size of the volume and even add to its cost, but their omission would 

 be a blunder of capital importance. 



The geographic range of the species within the colony will cer- 

 tainly receive due notice from Mr. Kirk. On this subject his personal 

 knowledge is unrivalled, and he will be a churlish worker who will 

 not gladly help him with materials for working out the details of 

 local distribution with the greatest possible accuracy and minuteness. 

 The Handbook contains a great mass of valuable facts relating to 

 local distribution ; but the range there assigned to species is not 

 unfrequently far wider than subsequent exploration will permit us 

 to accept. Poa (triceps, Forst., for example, seems to be unknown in 

 the southern half of the South Island, though the Handbook says it 

 is the common Poa of the islands ; and many more facts of the same 

 kind could be adduced. Mr. Kirk will correct for us errors of this 

 kind, and he will also be able to establish a more extended range for 

 many species recorded in the Handbook from a single locality or from 

 restricted areas. A full and accurate knowledge of range and 

 distribution of species will be one of the chief benefits which the new 

 Flora will confer on botanical students. Such a knowledge will be of 

 the utmost service for clearing up the characters and limits of the 

 species in the large and variable genera, such as Veronica, Celmisia, 

 Epilobium, and Pittosporum ; it should throw some light on the 

 existence or otherwise of hybrids in such variable genera ; it should 

 help us to see some little way into the history of the genesis of many 

 of the species that now inhabit the colony ; and it should aid us in 

 indicating the channels by which particular species have migrated 

 from their centres of greatest density. In fact no information which 

 the new Flora may contain will have more importance for the 

 elucidation of floral biological questions than a full account of the 

 facts of local distribution. In this field much still remains for future 

 generations to work out, but the few local workers have already 

 garnered a harvest of minute information that is as creditable to 

 their industry as it is likely to be fruitful in important conclusions. 



There is but one more topic to which we need refer. In the 

 preface to the third edition of Sir Joseph Hooker's " Students' Flora 

 of the British Islands," he says — " I have ventured to introduce into 

 " this edition, under the description of the flowers of various genera, 

 "characters concerned in the process of fertilisation, — as, whether 

 " wind-fertilised (anemophilous), insect fertilised (entomophilous), or 

 " self-fertilised ; also whether honey is secreted in the flower ; and 

 " whether the stamens and stigmas ripen together (homogamous), or 



