90 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 



now recognised and described is 5,498. The number of mammalia has 

 been doubled through the more accurate study of our seals, whales, and 

 dolphins. Then the list of birds has been increased from eighty-four to 

 195, chiefly through the exertions of Sir Walter Buller, whose great 

 standard work on our avifauna has gained credit and renown for 

 the whole colony. The number of fishes and mollusca has been more 

 than trebled, almost wholly by the indefatigable work of our Secretary, 

 Professor Hutton. But the greatest increase is in the group which Dr. 

 Gray placed as Annulosa, which, chiefly through the discovery of new 

 forms of insect life, has risen from 156 in 1840, to 4,295, of which over 

 2,000 are new beetles described by Captain Broun, of Auckland. When 

 we turn to botany we find that Deiffenbach, who appears to have 

 carefully collected all the references to date in 1840, states the flora to 

 comprise 632 plants of all kinds, and, as I have already mentioned, did 

 not expect that any more would be found. But by the time of the 

 publication of Hooker's " Flora of New Zealand " (1863), a work which 

 has been of inestimable value to our colonists, we find the number of 

 indigenous plants described had been increased to 2450. Armed with 

 the invaluable guidance afforded by Hooker's " Handbook," our colonial 

 botanists have renewed the search, and have since then discovered 1,469 

 new species, so that our plant census at the present date gives a total of 

 3,919 species. It would be impossible to make mention of all who 

 have contributed to this result as collectors, and hardly even to indicate 

 more than a few of those to whom science is indebted for the description 

 of the plants. The history of our post Hookerian botany is scattered 

 about in scientific periodical literature, and as Hooker's Handbook is 

 now quite out of print, it is obvious that, as the new discoveries 

 constitute more than one-third of the total flora, it is most important 

 that our young botanists should be fully equipped with all that has 

 been ascertained by those who have preceded them. I am glad to be 

 able to announce that such a work, in the form of a new edition of the 

 " Handbook of the Flora of New Zealand," approved by Sir Joseph 

 Hooker, is now in an advanced state of preparation by Professor 

 Thomas Kirk, who has already distinguished himself as the author of 

 our " Forest Flora." Mr. Kirk's long experience as a systematic 

 botanist and his personal knowledge of the flora of every part of the 

 colony, acquired during the exercise of his duties as Conservator of 

 Forests, point to him as the fitting man to undertake the task. But 

 quite apart from the work of increasing the local collections which bear 

 on biological studies, New Zealand stands out prominently in all 

 discussions on the subject of geographical biology. It stands as a lone 

 zoological area, minute in area, but on equal terms as far as regards the 

 antiquity and peculiar features of its fauna, with nearly all the larger 

 continents in the aggregate. In consequence of this, many philosophical 

 essays — such, for instance, as Hooker's introductory essay to the early 

 folio edition of the " Flora," the essays by Hutton, Travers, aud others 

 and also the New Zealand references in Wallace's works, have all 

 contributed essentially to the vital question of the causes which have 

 brought about the distribution and geographical affinities of plants and 

 animals, and have thus been of use in hastening the adoption of the 

 doctrine of evolution. But much still remains to be done. Both as 

 regards its fauna and its flora, New Zealand has always been treated as 

 too much of a whole quantity, and in consequence percentage schedules 



