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Rh but his own share in the work of botanical exploration was by no means small. That he fully grasped the leading features of plant-distribution in the South Island is evidenced by his essay "On the Geographical Botany of New Zealand," printed in the first volume of the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute. After his removal to Wellington in 1866, the official duties appertaining to the Geological Survey and Colonial Museum, &c., left little time for botanical research; but he has never missed an opportunity of promoting the efforts of others. In fact, it can be said that from the time of his arrival in the colony up to the present day no attempt has been made to investigate its flora which has not had his countenance and support. His services to botanical science are fitly commemorated in the remarkable endemic genus Hectorella, and in the magnificent Senecio Hectori, one of the finest of the arborescent Compositæ of the colony.

In 1863 Mr. H. H. Travers visited the Chatham Islands for the purpose of investigating its flora, at that time only known from a few plants collected by Dr. E. Dieffenbach in 1840. He remained in the group for several months, and succeeded, in forming large collections. On his return these were placed in the hands of the late Baron Mueller, of Melbourne, who published the results in his "Vegetation of the Chatham Islands," issued in 1864. In it Baron Mueller enumerates 129 species, of which sixty-two are phænogams and sixty-seven cryptogams. Seven new species were described. The work forms an important addition to the botanical literature of the colony, but New Zealand botanists entirely repudiate the peculiar views entertained by the author respecting the circumscription of many of the species. For instance, he merges the whole of the species of Veronica found in the Chathams, together with thirteen others from New Zealand, into one collective species, to which he gives the new name of V. Forsteri. An excellent account of Mr. Travers's visit was contributed by himself to the first volume of the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute. In 1871 he again visited the group, adding largely to his previous list. On this occasion his collections were worked out by Mr. Buchanan in his paper on "The Flowering-plants and Ferns of the Chatham Islands." Mr. H. H. Travers has also made collections on the Tararua Mountains, the Nelson mountains, and in other localities.

The important discoveries made in the interior of the South Island during the ten years following the publication of the "Flora Novae Zealandiae," and the increasing demand for a concise and inexpensive account of the plants of the colony, induced the New Zealand Government to make arrangements with Sir J. D. Hooker for the publication of such a work. The first part, containing the flowering-plants and ferns, appeared in 1864, under the title of "Handbook of the New Zealand Flora"; the concluding part, comprising the mosses, Hepaticæ, and lower cryptogams, followed in 1867. Its publication at once showed the great advance which had been made in elucidating the