in New Zealand. 
211 
in the “ Annals of Natural History,” enumerates only six hundred and 
forty species (including Cryptogamice ), and these chiefly the products of 
the northern island, and of the shores of that island. It has been re¬ 
marked by Mr. A. Cunningham, “ When we consider how little has been 
seen of the Botany of the northern island, notwithstanding that Euro¬ 
peans (engrossed truly in mercantile speculations) have now been settled 
several years upon its coasts; that the plants of the interior of its more 
expanded parts from the eastern to the western shores, which lie in the 
parallels of 38 9 and 3D°, arc absolutely wholly unknown, for no botanist 
w'ould deem it prudent to attempt a penetration, whatever his zeal may 
be, to its inland districts through which extirpating civil wars so exten¬ 
sively rage; when we glance at the map and perceive its snowy peaks, 
and especially that of Mount Egmont on the immediate western coast, 
the apex of which towers 14,000 feet above the ocean, whose waves wash 
its base, the upper part from the peak downwards to an extent of 5,000 
feet being clothed with eternal snows; in fine, when we reflect upon the 
fact, that (excepting at its northern shore in Cook’s Strait and at Dusky 
Bay on its south western coast) the botany of the larger or middle island 
is, to this day, veiled from our knowledge, we cannot but exclaim at the 
rich store of vegetable productions which yet remains to be laid before 
us ! For the ‘ Precursor 1 contains perhaps but a tithe of wliat may one 
day be shown us; but a foretaste to excite our desires to behold what the 
future labours of botanists may, it is hoped, ere long, lay open to our 
eyes. Long since has that learned botanist, Mr. Brown, remarked, that 
the character of the New Zealand IHora, known to us chiefly from the 
materials collected by Sir Joseph Banks, is to a considerable degree 
peculiar, although it boars also a certain affinity to those of the two great 
countries between which it is situated, and approaching rather to that of 
Terra Australis than to South America.” 
Since the period at which the above was written, many plants from 
New Zealand have been communicated to me by Mr. Colenso, Mr. Ed- 
gerley, and Dr. Logan, constant residents in the northern island; and 
Mr. Bid will, Dr. Sinclair, Dr. Dieffenbach, and Dr. Hooker collected 
during their casual visits :—I cannot give a better idea of the value of 
their communications than l)y saying that whereas no species of Beach 
tree had ever been known to inhabit this group of islands, four distinct 
kinds have been brought to light by these researches, and are already 
published in our “ leones Plantarum * Valuable as are the disco- 
* Sec Tabs, nexxx, dcxxxi, ncxxxix, dclii and dclxxiii, of that work. 
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