Page:Native Flowers of New Zealand.djvu/9



The intention in publishing this book is to make known—quite as much in New Zealand as elsewhere—some of the lovely wild flowers we possess, many of which have never been painted, and some others only from dried specimens, as in Hooker's Flora. This is now out of print, and no coloured illustrations of the New Zealand Flora have been published since.

I have often heard it stated that we had no flowers in New Zealand, or very few, such as the Ratas, the red and yellow Kowhai, the Clematis, the Tea Tree, and a few others. When travelling about the country collecting flowers, I was much astonished to find how numerous and varied they were. Botanists no doubt knew of them, and had them carefully dried; but they were pressed out of shape and colour, labelled, and put away in cases out of sight, (unless required for reference), and each one taken from its fellows and put with others of the same genera from other parts of the world. It was on hearing a lecture from Mr. Cheeseman, in Auckland, after his return from an expedition to the mountains about Nelson, and to Arthur's Pass and the Otira Gorge, Canterbury, when he showed us dried specimens of beautiful flowers of different colours, and described how lovely they looked growing in their native state, that I first thought, what a pity it was they were not painted. Then again, several years later, 1884, when I had begun to paint a few myself, I applied to Mr. Cheeseman, at the Museum in Auckland, for the names of some of them. He showed me three of the same genus, and said that this was yellow, this one was white, and this purple. They were all reduced to a dirty looking brown colour. I again said, "What a pity they are not painted." A gentleman present said, "Why don't you do it?" I said, "I would if Government would help me." This the Government did. The Honourable E. Richardson, the Minister of Public Works, kindly gave me passes on the railways, and the Minister of Education, Sir Robert Stout, took copies of my book for public schools and libraries. Mr. Mills Managing Director of the Union Company, kindly gave me passes on the steamers, and later on, the N. Z. Shipping Company offered me a saloon passage to England for the price of a second class, on account of my making known the New Zealand flowers, but I was unfortunately unable to avail myself of the offer.

It was a serious undertaking, for I had to travel by sea and by land, coaching over rough and dangerous roads, and at great expense, risk, and fatigue. But it was a labour of love. Every new flower was a delight and wonder; and the scenery, which I might otherwise never have seen, and the delightful excursions with kind friends to help to get flowers for "The Book," was enough to repay all my fatigue.