Has New Zealand No Flowers!

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 160, 28 August 1886, Page 2

Has New Zealand No Flowers !

Dr J, E. Taylor, editor of Science Gossip % contributes an article to the Melbourne. Argm on "Botany at the Colonial and Indian Exhibition." In this article Dr Taylor says: — "New Zealand, from a botanical point of view, has reserved' her energies.. She has certainly not wasted anything in rcsthetical fooling. The screen painted, with native flowers, exhibited by Miss Harris, of Nelson, is almost the sole remainder that New Zealand does possess flowers. True, under the head of ' Horticulture,' Mr J. D. Enys has a ' class ' all to himself by his exhibit of Raoulia — better known, perhaps, as the c Vegetable Sheep,' on account of its growing in large white tufts on elevated sheep runs* where it is often mistaken for sheep. It is a very remarkable plant, a member of the cosmopolitan natural order cowposikiismd. nearly allied to our European ' everlasting flowers' {GnaphaUum). Of cours-e, there are endless exhibits of New Zealand woods ; and a somewhat feeble show of preserved vegetables and fruits, the best coming from Auckland growers. Hats made from native fabrics are shown in one or two instances j and there are a few ornamental cards with terns mounted on them, but there is little to give the specialist any knowledge of the wonderful vegetation of the islands of New Zealand. There is a marvellous contrast in this respect between the New Zealand and the Indian Courts. A vegetarian cynic might almost complain that the New Zealand Carnophagists has left the products of their vegetable kingdom out on purpose !'' This is a proof of the impressions produced on vwitori to the exhibition with regard to the get-up of the New Zealand Court. However the flora of New Zealand is better represented pictorially than Dr. Taylor was apparently aware of. Mrs Stoddart (of Christchurch), Mrs Hetley (of Auckland),. Miss Emma Cheoseman (of Auckland), Mrs F. Tizard (of the Thames), Miss F. E. Richardson (of Wellington) are all large exhibitors of paintings of New Zealand flowers. But these artistic efforts ar& evidently considered too precious to bemucbi looked at, for the pictures are stowed away in some inaccessible gallery of the Albert Hall, where they are as difficult to find and as likely to be looked for as a needle in a bundle of hay.