x PREFACE. 
in common with all colonial botanists, is the impossibility of examining 
those European herbaria in which the types of so many of the published 
species are deposited ; and consequently mistakes may have been made 
in the identification of the species, especially in genera like Veronica, 
Gentiana, Myosotis, &e. But I trust that the number of such errors is not 
large. Their detection may be safely left to future workers. 
A few statistics respecting the extent and composition of the flora may 
be of interest. The total number of species described, including a few 
additions given in the Appendix, is 1,571, of which 1,415 are phaenogams, 
and 156 vascular cryptogams. These are contained in 382 genera, 
distributed in 97 orders. The average number of species to each order 
is slightly over 16; the average number of species to each genus rather 
more than 4, The orders containing more than 24 species are as under :— 
Compositae Ee, .. 221 | Ranunculaceae .. rt. 100 
Filices.. af ae hss. | Rubiaceae 4 ay. fet 
Cyperaceae 7 Be lak, | Epacrideae es, os eel 
Serophularineae .. ve ELS Onagrarieae “4 St. eed 
Gamineae ie iad ed | Leguminosae _,.. a A 
Umbelliferae —* .. 62 | Juncaceae x, .. 2b 
Orchideae ‘5 sie ae Boraginaceae 25 
The Compositae thus constitute one-seventh of the whole flora, an 
unusually high proportion. The genera containing 20 species or more 
are— 
Veronica * ee | Senecio - .. 30 
Carex .. ns .. 54 Kpilobrum A. a: 
Celmisia .. = -. 43 | Poa .. ss 2 
Coprosma :: .. 40 | Myosotis £3 ss 
Ranunculus o uns ee | Hymenophyllum ee aU 
Olearia .. i. .. do | 
Of the total number of species (1,571) no fewer than 1,143, or nearly . 
three-quarters of the entire flora, are peculiar to the colony. With 
respect to the 428 species which are found elsewhere, 366 extend to 
Australia, and 108 to South America. Coming to the local distribution 
of the species, 789 are found in both the North and South Islands, 219 
occur in the North Island but have not yet been detected in the South 
Island, while 456 species known to occur in the South Island have not 
been collected in the North Island. No fewer than 23 species are found 
in the Kermadec Islands but not in any other portion of the colony; 
25 in the Chatham Islands; 10 in Stewart Island; and 48 in the outlying 
islands to the south of New Zealand, including in the term the Auckland 
and Campbell Islands, Antipodes Island, and Macquarie Island. 
