PREFACE.
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. my first excursions were near Auckland, at Wai-wera (hot water), where the stream of hot water literally pours out of the cliff into delightful baths, with its comfortable hotel and lovely scenery, with its two rivers, where you go up in a boat between wooded mountains and under trees with ferns hanging from the branches, or with bushes of White Tea-tree (Leptospermum scoparium) their boughs covered with little white flowers looking like long plumes bending over almost into the water, reflected distinctly on the smooth surface. From the delightful beach of hard sand, may be seen bold cliffs with huge trees of Metrosideros tomentosa (plate 29), clinging to the face and on the hill above, amongst the "bush" of different kinds of trees and creepers of every shade of green; you may see in the Spring patches of bright yellow Kowhai (Sophora tetrantha) Clematis, white Pukapuka, or New Zealand Lilac (Brachyglottis repanda), with its large leaves—silvery white underneath—and heads of small cream flowers. Then across the valley on the wooded hill opposite, may be seen large trees 50 feet high, a mass of bright red, these are Rata trees (species:Metrosideros robusta). In the woods, festooned from tree to tree, there is the bramble or Bush Lawyer (Rubus Australis), with long sprays of white flowers, and with it the bunches of scarlet berries of the Supple Jack (Rhipogonum scandens), which forms such a thick twisted mass in the uncut "bush," that you can only get through it with difficulty, and may often be tripped up or half hanged by it. Then all around on the stems of the trees, and hanging from the branches, and on the ground, are lovely ferns of all shapes and sizes. All the flowers I have described and many others, I have seen in blossom at the same time at Wai-wera in Spring. These are common ones, and may be found at Whangarei, Waikomiti, Thames, and other places near Auckland. At the Thames there are many additional ones, some of which Mr. Adams took much trouble in procuring for me, and others I saw for the first time in a ride up the Ranges, for instance, the lovely white Rata (Metrosideros albiflora) (plate 18), hanging down a bank and climbing the branches of the trees in masses of white feathery balls, the tall forest tree of Quintinia serrata (plate 33), in full blossom, the pretty little trees of Phebalium nudum (plate 32), and the graceful Senecio myrianthos.
My next collecting ground was beautiful Taranaki, "The Garden of New Zealand," as it is called, my old home, where we went through the war and had houses burnt, and sheep, cattle, and horses carried off by the natives. It is a beautiful region with its grand peak of Mount Egmont, its mountain streams running over rocks and stones between high cliffs and wooded mountains, with ferns, especially the Hymenophyllum tribe, everywhere, H. demissum, H. polyanthos, and Trichomanes reniforme, carpet the ground in many places, as may be seen in the Forster case in Kew Gardens. In walking up the path, or rather water-course, up the Ranges, 5,000 feet high, I could not resist stopping continually to gather H. pulcherrimum, H. aeruginosum, Todea superba, and the most beautiful mosses with large fern-like leaves, growing on the tree trunks and rocks. When about 4,000 feet high we emerged from the "bush." The view was supurb. It seemed as if for miles and miles there was nothing but trees and the sea beyond them. The town of New Plymouth lay far away in the distance, but we could not see it, it was hidden by the smoke of the burning "bush." The beautiful forest with its flowers and ferns is fast disappearing before the tide of cultivation, and many will only be known by their dried and shrivelled up remains. The short scrub where we were, was greatly composed of Senecio cleagnifolius, or "brown backs" (plate 15), and a very curious kind of spear grass. I could not get any further, but others of the party went to the top of the ridge, another 1,000 feet, and they kindly brought me several lovely little Alpine flowers, Forstera Bidwillii, Euphrasia Monroi, Gnaphalium bellidioides, and others. At the foot of the Ranges the small Snow-trees (Carpodetus serratus), so called from the quantities of little white flowers making it appear as if there had been a fall of snow, were in full bloom, the flowers all down the stems, with shining leaves on each side, forming the most lovely wreaths. After a twelve hours' journey by train to Palmerston, I started at six the following morning on my overland journey by coach to Wellington, going through the famed Manawatu Gorge, sleeping one night on the way, then starting at 4 o'clock a.m., and on through miles and miles of forest with some good bits of mountain scenery to Masterton, then by train to Wellington, zig-zag up the Rimutaka Mountain, with the great engines (four I think), puffing and snorting as if they hardly could get up. We looked down on the beautiful scenery, the trees red with Tetoki berries, passed the place where a train, engines and all, was blown down the hill by the wind, and then went through the tunnel and down the other side to the Hutt Valley. After going by sea to Nelson, through Queen Charlotte's Sound and the French Pass, we went by coach to a station called Lake Station, belonging to Mr. John Kerr, whose family were most kind in helping me. The roads in New Zealand are very narrow, with only just room for the coach, and no wall or anything to prevent one going over the precipice. Once as we were at the top of a mountain range, and had gone round a sharp curve, one of the traces broke. Some evil disposed men had wantonly set fire to the forest all along the road, burning whole sides of mountains and destroying some of the most magnificent scenery, we were several days in going through, it was still smoking and occasionally blazing up, and there was the risk of burnt trees falling on us. After leaving the coach we were driven by buggy twelve miles to the station, and had to pass over a burnt wooden bridge, which it was hoped would not give way. We went in a boat on a lovely lake, Roto-iti (or Little Lake), with high mountains round three sides of it; we landed on a point and walked up to a waterfall where I got the Loranthus Colensoi (plate 30), Ourissia macrophylla, and some others. At the edge of the lake there were bushes with lovely berries of different colours, and such large white snow berries (Gaultheria antipoda). Wahlenbergia saxicola, and Gentiana saxosa (plate 24), were in great abundance, also some of the Veronicas, forming great masses of white and lilac.
It was now February; the season was too advanced, and most of the Spring flowers had disappeared; it was a great pity, but I had been detained both in Wellington and Nelson. I was anxious to hurry on so as not to lose those in Arthur's Pass. We drove again the twelve miles, and passed the burnt bridge a second time in safety, arriving at the little inn amongst the mountains, where we joined the coach. The view was most beautiful of the river winding down the valley many hundred feet below. The sides of the road were lined with Lomaria rulcanica, Aspidium vestitum, Hypolepis distans, Adiantums, and other ferns. There were long bunches of blackberries and glossy black mako-mako berries, which we saw all the way to Hokitika. We went all along the banks of the Buller River, losing it now and then and coming back to it, seeing some of the most beautiful scenery in New Zealand, and by a road not much travelled, unfortunately we passed some of the finest parts in the dark. The drivers of the coaches on this road are brothers. They are most careful, and it is very necessary that they should be so. Your heart is in your mouth most of the way. At one place in particular, the road is built outside the cliff, and supported on piles, which are inserted somehow into the rock. The cliff rises perpendicularly above you, and there is only just room for the coach to pass round without touching, and there is hardly an inch to spare on the outside edge which has no wall or fence. If one of the horses shied or fell, coach and all would go over into the river, which rushes along two hundred feet below, and we saw all this from a turn in the road before we came to it, which made it worse. I kept my face turned to the cliff, but my niece, who was with me and had a stronger head, kept calling my attention to the magnificent scenery. We both drew a long breath when it was over, and were truly thankful to be safely through; yet the coach goes every day with the same driver. The chief danger I believe, lies in some of the wooden piles becoming decayed, how the road was ever made is marvellous. We thought very little of the famous pass in the Otira Gorge after this, though this is considered very bad. We travelled some distance in the dark, and so I missed Senecio Hectori, but Mr. Buchanan kindly supplied me with it afterwards (plate 20).
We arrived about 9 p.m. at a small inn, and started at 6 a.m. next day through a cold mist from the river, which cleared away afterwards, and it became very hot. We were soon passing through country with gold-digging shafts, water-races, and other traces of mining. We crossed several rivers, sometimes bumping over the big boulders and struggling through the rushing water, others by ferry, and at one, the Teremakau, we left the coach and entered a kind of wooden box, hung on a rope, which was wound up by a small steam engine on the other side. We slid down one side and up the other. It was not an unpleasant but a very curious sensation to find oneself suspended from one to two hundred feet above a broad rapid river. On one occasion the rope which pulled the cage on one side broke, and the passengers were dangling by the other over the roaring torrent until assistance came.
When we landed at the opposite side we entered a bush tramcar drawn by one horse, a very primitive arrangement, on rails of wood. After travelling some distance we got into another coach which was full of Chinamen, and reached Greymouth in the evening, very glad to get once more into a comfortable hotel. The next morning we started by tram again. We had it all to ourselves, and enjoyed the quiet, smooth, plodding along through a narrow lane in the bush, always the same avenue stretching away in the distance, whether we looked behind or ahead, there were tall forest trees, and masses of creepers, ferns, mosses, lichens, and flowers, which I longed to gather, but we could not stop. Then we went on by coach again, driven by a young gentleman, son of a military man, who entertained us by his experiences till we reached Hokitika, where we stayed four days waiting for the coach to take us across the mountains to Christchurch. It rained of course, most of the time; it always does at Hokitika. But one clear lovely morning we had a splended view of Mount Cook, and the Southern Alps covered with snow in the far distance, standing out hard and clear against the sky, touched with pink and yellow by the rising sun.
We thought we had secured the lower box seats for the journey to the Otira Gorge, but found ourselves mistaken, and had to be content with the upper ones on the top of the coach, high up, with our feet even above the driver's head, and the horses in the depths below, with nothing to prevent us from slipping off. After one long very steep hill, down which we went full gallop, I gave in and went inside, until a lady down below kindly exchanged seats with me. The first part of the journey was comparatively easy, with a good road between wooded mountains, already becoming red with the Rata flowers (Metrosideros lucida), and over streams, some not bridged, down we went at full speed, and up the other side, and woe betide us if the springs broke. About 8 a.m., we came to a small mining village in the midst of the forest, where we had breakfast. We drove through beautiful scenery till we reached the Taipo, or Devil River, where we all had to leave the coach and cross by a long narrow swinging bridge, which was rather a trial, as it oscillated so much. We got into the coach again on the other side, and to judge by the way the luggage was mixed up in the inside, it was well we had some other means of crossing.
About 2 p.m., we arrived at the Otira Gorge, where there is a small inn by the side of the river, which is very broad there, or rather the bed of it is, as there are two channels, the rest is all stones. We dined here, and the other people went on by the coach, but my niece and I stayed till the following one, four days later, in order to obtain the flowers on Arthur's Pass, which is an excellent place for Alpine plants. I prospected the river bed and side that afternoon, and found plenty of Veronica Lyallii, a small plant with delicate pale lilac flowers, Raolias Rhabdothamnus with bright crimson leaves, trees of Olearia in bloom, and the ground strewn with Lomaria alpina ferns. Just before crossing the river there were magnificent plants of Todea superba, of which our landlord kindly got me a large quantity carefully packed up, but alas, they had to be left behind as the coach was too full. The following day he went with us to Arthur's Pass, my niece and I riding in turns, and we very much enjoyed our expedition. We saw the celebrated gorge to great advantage in light and shade, which is generally wanting, as the coach passes through in the afternoon when the sun has left it. It was shining brightly in the morning when we went, and the effect was most beautiful, especially from the bridge across the gorge, where we could look up and down. Near the top the Hoheria or Lace-bark trees (Plagianthus Lyallii) (plate 34), were in full blossom with bunches of cherry-like flowers, and close alongside of them were trees of crimson Rata (Metrosideros Lucida), making a lovely contrast; also bushes of Veronica, a mass of white flowers (Olearia ilcifolia) (plate 21), and many others. We descended into a valley and then mounted up to Arthur's Pass. I was very sorry to find most of the flowers were over, but I could see how many more I could get if I came earlier in the season on another occasion. I was delighted to find a small piece of New Zealand Edelweiss (Gnaphalium grandiceps) (plate 31), the beautiful Celmisia Monroi (plate 5), the plants of which were in such profusion that the whole Pass must have been studded earlier in the year with its large starry white flowers. There were Veronicas Senecios, Celmisias, of different kinds, the little Uticularia, lovely white Gentians (plate 24), the long-spike of spear-grass, and many others. In the valley we had passed through by the side of the stream, there were numerous plants of Ranunculus Lyallii, or Mountain Lily, as it is called. We returned in the evening through the gorge, with baskets full to overflowing with flowers, only a few of which I could paint at the time, others we packed in tins and took with us to Christchurch. Some we pressed, as well as the ferns, and were kept busy until the coach arrived by which we went on. The lovely Veronica Lyallii was growing by the side of the road. On the other side of Arthur's Pass we had a glimpse of a glacier. By-and-bye we came to a narrow road, made of loose boulder stones, with a steep slope down into the river far below, which had often before given way. We felt anxious for those on the top of the coach, some of whom had their feet dangling over the side when it swung about, sometimes nearly over the edge. Further on we came to a pass down the side of a mountain. The gentlemen walked down a short cut, but we had to remain in the coach; the road was very narrow, and we went full gallop in and out, round the points and rocks which we nearly grazed, and once when we jumped a water-course we thought the coach was really over, it seemed to sway right over the precipice. But one lady stayed on the top all the way. After crossing sixteen times, the last time in the dark, the Waimakariri river, the bed of which is composed of round boulders, sometimes a quarter of a mile wide, the latter part when it was quite dark, we at last reached the Bealey Hotel where the coach from Christchurch had arrived, also full of people. The next day, after an early start, and much grumbling about boxes, &c, having to be left behind, we reached Springfield, and went on by train, arriving in the evening at Christchurch. Here I stayed six weeks painting; first the flowers I had brought with me in tins, and then some out of the native garden (the best in the colony), in the beautiful Botanical Gardens, where the Armstrongs, father and son, have cultivated the indigenous flora with great success, collecting the plants from the mountains, and also from Stewart's and the Chatham Islands. They were very kind in giving me those I wanted, and also packets of seeds which I brought over to my friends in England. They have many orders, but it seems very difficult to acclimatize the New Zealand flowers. It was intensely hot when we arrived, but soon after there was a fall of snow on the mountains, and I had to give up going to Lake Wakatipu, for which I was very sorry. We went for two days to Dunedin and back, and saw Mr. Buchanan, who, when he was the Government botanist, drew for the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute all the newly discovered plants, but he has now retired, a martyr to rheumatism, the usual result of exposure to our climate. He was much pleased that the flowers should be painted and made known before they were lost by burnings and the cultivation of the ground. He asked how he could help me, and kindly painted for me the two Senecios (plate 20), which I could not get, and gave me the paragraph published in my prospectus. I went back to Wellington, and overland to Taranaki by another route, by train and coach along the sandy beach for six hours, then by train again from Foxton, and steamer to Auckland, seeing some more beautiful scenery, and having some adventures, which, as my account is, I fear, already too long, I must not relate.
My sketches created some surprise in Auckland, as even people who were born in New Zealand had no idea we had such lovely flowers. I left shortly after for England in order to have my plates well done. On seeing some works similar to mine, published by Messrs. Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, and Rivington, beautifully produced, I determined to give them mine to do, and I have great reason to be pleased that I did so. I have to thank them for their great kindness and consideration, without which this book would never have appeared.
I am also much obliged to Messrs. Leighton Brothers for the way in which they have executed the plates, they have rendered my paintings exactly, except in a few cases. The proofs were sent to me for correction in Madeira, and the Portuguese Government detained the parcel in Lisbon two months. It was only from agitating through the Postmaster-General in England that I received them at all. This caused the long detention of Parts II. and III.; the plates were printed without my correction, consequently the colouring in plate 26 is not quite correct, and plates 18 and 25 are not so good as they should be.
Professor Kirk, Conservator of Forests, &c, and Mr. Cheeseman, Curator of the Auckland Museum, have kindly aided me throughout. My brother, Henry S. McKellar, Secretary and Inspector of Customs, New Zealand, and my brother-in-law, Dr. Hetley, of Norbury Lodge, Upper Norwood, have kindly assisted me greatly. I have also to thank Sir J. Dalton Hooker, Mr. Thistleton Dyer, Director of Kew Gardens, Mr. Morris, Assistant Director, Professor Oliver, and Mr. Baker, under whom I worked at the Herbarium at Kew. Also Mr. Rolfe, who kindly showed me how to make the dissections, found the books I required, and helped me in every way he could.
I enjoyed my stay at Kew writing descriptions, doing dissections, and obtaining information from the numerous books, many of which are not to be obtained elsewhere. I am sorry it is over and that my work is done for the present. I should be glad to continue it. I have many more flowers than I was able to put in these three parts; some lovely and interesting ones I was sorry to leave out, and I could paint many more after my return to New Zealand, and make this work a more complete one, if I received sufficient encouragement to do so.
I was asked to put in dissections of the flowers, and, not having sufficient knowledge myself, I have traced all I could find from different books at Kew, and have named the authority from which I took them.
The others I have tried to do from some dried specimens I had, I am afraid they are of no real value botanically, but they may be of some assistance to amateurs. I trust my kind subscribers will excuse their faults and accept them for what they are worth. I feel how very imperfectly I have represented the flowers, but if I should be able to continue the work, the additional experience and the knowledge I have obtained at Kew, will, I trust, enable me to make my drawings of more botanical value and interest to the friends who have so kindly assisted me in the production of this work.