260 The N.Z. Journal of Science and Technology. [July 
The Need of a Comprehensive Dominion Herbarium, by D. Petrie. 
In bygone years the Government of New Zealand did nmch to promote 
the scientific study of the native vegetation of this Dominion. It met the 
expense of publishing most of the important works dealing with its flora. 
These include Hooker’s Handbook , issued as early as 1864 and 1867 ; the 
illustrated work (for the times excellent) on the native grasses by John 
Buchanan ; a useful Forest Flora (copiously if somewhat roughly illus¬ 
trated), edited by Thomas Kirk ; the same writer’s unfinished Students' 
Flora; various valuable reports on limited little-known districts by Dr. 
L. Cockayne ; the same author’s charming little work on New Zealand 
Plants and their Story; T. F. Cheeseman’s excellent and comprehensive 
Manual: and, lastly, the fine volume of Illustrations of the New Zealand 
Flora, edited by Cheeseman, assisted by W. B. Hemsley. No doubt a 
considerable part of the expense incurred in the production of these works 
was recouped by sales of copies, but, on the whole, the record is a credit¬ 
able one. 
The collections of native and introduced plants on which the above- 
mentioned works were based were mainly got together by private botanical 
workers. As these collections were gathered throughout the wide region 
between Macquarie Island in the south and the Kermadecs in the north, 
at a time when travel was slow, inconvenient, and costly, it is obvious 
that great expense was incurred in their accumulation. All this material 
was made available for the preparation of the Government publications 
without charge of any kind. Beyond question, the cost of publication 
was greatly exceeded by that involved in the collection and preparation 
of the suites of specimens on which the published works were founded. 
So far as I am aware, the principal works dealing with the New Zealand 
flora produced before the issue of Hooker’s Handbook were prepared and 
published at the cost of the British Government. Of such works by far 
the most important were Hooker’s Flora Antarctica and Flora Novae- 
Zelandiae, in which a sound foundation was laid for future workers to build 
on. Indeed, it is to the early publication and high authority of Hooker’s 
works on the southern floras that the present satisfactory position of 
phanerogamic botany in New Zealand is due. The part taken by other 
national Governments in elucidating the flora of our Islands need not be 
dwelt on here. 
The New Zealand Government has also for some fifty years con¬ 
tributed a modest subsidy to the New Zealand Institute, enabling 
that body to publish its annual Transactions, in the successive volumes 
of which many papers on botanical subjects by local workers have 
appeared. The promise of the present New Zealand Government 
to augment considerably this subsidy to the New Zealand Institute is 
evidence of a continued interest in scientific studies, and matter for 
sincere congratulation. 
In all the other British colonies of the size and importance of New 
Zealand their Governments have done much more to advance the 
interests of botanical science than has been attempted in our Dominion. 
They have, many of them long since, made adequate provision for the 
employment of an expert Government botanist with a suitable staff of 
assistants, and formed large and valuable national herbaria or plant 
museums. In our Dominion no serious steps have been taken in these 
directions, and the need of such a national institution under capable 
direction seems to be little recognized. 
