Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/13

Rh phænogams, 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:—

The Compositæ thus constitute one-seventh of the whole flora, an unusually high proportion. The genera containing twenty species or more are:—

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.

It now only remains for me to express my grateful thanks to the Education Department, under whose auspices the work has been prepared, for the readiness with which it has co-operated with me in endeavouring to render it as complete and reliable as possible. In this connection, I would specially mention the Right Hon. R. J. Seddon,