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FLORA
N E W Z E A L A N D .
I HAVE long felt earnestly desirous of promoting a love and knowledge of the Science of
Botany in those English Colonies which it has been my good fortune to visit; and the
present work offers me in part an opportunity of doing s o ; for though it was called for by-
professed Botanists, and is therefore more sciehtific than a popular Flora should be, I have
added to the technical characters such English descriptions as will enable the resident to
name his plants, and I have written these in the simplest language that can be applied to
Botany. To make my object clearer, I shall, before commencing, explain the nature and
character of this work, and, addressing myself more especially to the Colonist, point out
what is the course he should pursue in commencing the study of Botany.
I have endeavoured to give, in ‘ The Flora of New Zealand,’ accurate descriptions of all
the Flowering Plants and Ferns, natives of the three islands, with their localities, and some
general information respecting them. The Mosses, Flepaticm, Lichens, Fungi, etc., are so
numerous, and objects of so special a study, that they cannot all be desciibed. As the
greater proportion of them are common to other countries, and published in other works,
few, except new species, will be characterized or figured here; but all will be introduced
with references, their habitats, and additional information where necessary.
The state of botanical science demands Latin descriptions of tlie p lan ts: this is all
that Botanists require; but I have invariably added, in English, as much as will enable the
Colonist to identify them, provided he knows the rudiments of Botany. Altliough England
holds so many more Colonies than any other nation, of none has a Flora been pubhshed: I
know- from experience liow great a desideratum this is, and I have heard the want deplored
in Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand, especially. The Great Exliibition of 1851 has
forcibly shown this, the vegetable productions of our Colonies being almost invariably so
badly named, that the often valuable information given with tliem, and collected at great
cost and trouble, is, in most cases of novelty, useless in England.
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