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xxxiv Professor J. H. Scott, of Dunedin, visited Macquarie Island in 1880. On his return he published an excellent account of the fauna and flora (Trans. N.Z. Inst., xv., 484), including a catalogue of the plants observed by him.

Among others who have interested themselves with New Zealand botany between the publication of the "Handbook" and the year 1895 may be mentioned the late Mr. Justice Gillies, Captain Hutton, T. H. Potts, C. Traill, S. Percy Smith, J. Rutland, P. Goyen, Captain G. Mair, A. T. Urquhart, H. Tryon, Archdeacon Walsh, T. W. Kirk, J. W. Hall, J. Tennant, and J. Baber.

In 1896 Dr. L. Diels, of Berlin, published in Engler's Botanical Year-book a paper entitled "Vegetations-biologie von Neu-Seeland," which deserves special mention on account of being the first attempt to prepare an account of the flora of the colony from an œcological standpoint. Although based entirely on herbarium material and on the observations of other botanists and collectors, and consequently containing errors both of omission and commission, it is nevertheless a work of considerable originality and merit, and is well worth the attention of all students of the flora.

Since 1897 by far the most important contributions to our knowledge of the New Zealand flora have been made by Dr. L. Cockayne, and I regret that only brief mention can be made of his work here. In three papers "On the Seedling Forms of New Zealand Phanerogams and their Development" (Trans. N.Z. Inst., xxxi., 354; xxxii., 83; and xxiii., 264) he describes with considerable detail the seedling leaves of many New Zealand plants, giving numerous figures, and in several instances tracing the gradual development of the foliage into the mature stage. Much information is given respecting the life-history of the species treated of, particularly in the genera Carmichælia and Veronica. In the latter genus, most of the species with scale-like leaves are very fully discussed, and their early foliage described. In a paper on the "Plant-geography of the Waimakariri River-basin" (Trans. N.Z. Inst., xxxii., 95) Dr. Cockayne makes the first attempt in the colony to treat the flora of a district from an œcological point of view. It was followed by his "Account of the Plant-covering of Chatham Island" (Trans. N.Z. Inst., xxxiv., 242), a publication which has thrown a flood of light on the nature and composition of the flora of this seldom-visited appanage of New Zealand. Lastly, the volume of Transactions for 1904 contains an elaborate paper on "An Excursion to the Southern Islands of New Zealand," in which he not only gives a detailed account of the "plant-formations" which make up the flora of the islands visited, but also contributes a list of the flowering-plants and ferns, and a sketch of the physiographv. geology, climate, &c. These papers, which mark an entirely new epoch in the history of botanical investigation in New Zealand, will induce all students of the flora to look forward with impatience for the appearance of the