10 * 
PREFACE. 
1832). Some of Forster’s plants, together with extracts from his MSS., 
preserved in the Paris Museum, were also published in this work. 
In 1825, Mr. Charles Fraser, then superintendent of the Sydney- 
Botanical Gardens, landed for one day in the Bay of Islands, made a 
small collection of dried plants. He, however, procured more living 
ones, some of which were amongst the first plants of the islands which 
were introduced into European gardens. 
In 1826, and again in 1838, Allan Cunningham, the eminent 
Australian botanist and explorer, made extensive botanical explorations in 
the northern parts of the Northern Island, chiefly at the Bay of Islands ; 
and in 1S33, his brother, Richard Cunningham (Fraser’s immediate 
successor in the Sydney gardens), was sent in H.M.S. Buffalo, to pro- 
cure timber for the Government of Australia. The results of the la- 
bours of the brothers, and especially of Allan, whose arduous exertions 
in the islands led to his untimely death at Sydney in 1S39, added consi- 
derably to the known Flora, and were collected by Allan into his ‘ Florae 
Novae-Zelandiae Precursor,- which was published by Sir W. J. Hooker, 
partly in his ‘Companion to the Botanical Magazine,’ vol. ii. , and partly 
in the ‘Annals and Magazine of Natural History,’ vols. i. ii. iii. 
The herbarium of the Cunninghams, which has lately been pre- 
sented by its possessor, R. Heward, Esq., F.L.S., to the Royal Gardens, 
Kew, had been lent to me by its liberal possessor during the prepara- 
tion of the ‘Flora Novs-Zelandiae,’ and I have again consulted it during 
the preparation of this work. 
In 1810 and 1841, the French frigate ‘ L’Aube,’ and in 1842-3 
another, the ‘ Allier,’ made a lengthened sojourn at the islands; during 
those occasions M. Raoul, a very intelligent medical officer, diligently 
explored Banks’s Peninsula and the Bay of Islands, making excellent 
collections at the former locality especially ; most of the new species 
discovered were published first in the ‘ Annales des Sciences Naturelles 1 
(ser. iii. vol. ii. p. 113) by MM. Raoul and Decaisne, and more recently 
were described and figured in a beautiful work, entitled, ‘ Choix de 
Plantes de la Nouvelle-Zelande,’ which further contains thirty plates, 
and an enumeration of all then known New Zealand plants. The collec- 
tions are preserved in the Paris Museum, and a set has been communi- 
cated to Sir W. Hooker’s herbarium. 
In 1841, the Antarctic Expedition visited the Bay of Islands, when, 
accompanied by my friend the Rev. W. Colenso, and by Dr. A. Sinclair 
during a part of the time, I was enabled to explore the neighbourhood 
very fully, and to add largely to the Cryptogamie Flora. 
