THE FLOWERS OF NEW ZEALAND.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5580, 30 March 1886, Page 1

THE FLOWERS OF NEW ZEALAND.

. Few people are aware either of the great beauty or the astonishing variety of our native flowers. In this city, Mias Sfcoddart haa done a little towards making the untravelled acquainted with a number of their forms, but Mrs Charles Hetley, of Auckland, hag undertaken a very much more arduous task. This is nothing le&a than tho publication of " The Native Flowere of New Zealand," a work which will be illustrated i» colour by means of chromo-lithography from the studies which Mrs Hetley has been engaged in making for months past, and two specimens of which may be seen in Messrs Simpson and Williams' window in High 3kreet. One of these is the " Wild Cherry," or " laoe bark " of the settlers, a beautiful adjumot to the mountain scenery. The best •f Mrs Hetley's paintings Bhe has sent Home to the Indian and Colonial Exhibition, but those referred to, and a number which we have been privileged to examine privately, are guarantees that tho book, if the publisher's lithographer works with the Mtna skill and fidelity as the illustrator, will bo most valuable. Mrs Hetley Kill do for our wild flowers what Dr W. L. Boiler did so well for •ur Native birds, and the book should he of equal service to tho scientific man, the botanist pur sang, and the simple amateur Becking for information about the flowers indigenous to his native land. Mrs Hetley has been aided in every possible way by ouch high authorities as Mr Cheesaian, of Auckland, Dr Hector, Dr von Haaet, Mr T. H. Potts, Mr J. D. Enyß, Mr Buchanan (late of the Colonial Museum), Ur 3. B. Armstrong, and others, so that She work may be thoroughly relied on for botanical accuracy. The care and paina taken by the illustrator herself, who has travelled through a great part of the Colony in order to make " studies from the life" of our flora, and her skill as a painter, ahould ensure general truthfulness *nd artistic -merit. Her last journey wus overland to Chriatchnrcli from Nelson, through the Otira Gorge, in order to obtain specimens of the Alpine flora of New Zealand. Altogether, Mrs Hetley haa collocted and transferred to paper liome 150 examples of New Zealand wild flowers, and haa found her undertaking grown to much larger dimensions than she anticipated. The book will be brought tiut in several parts at a guinea ec.ch, and Mrs Hetley will shortly bo on hor way Home to superintend the publishing of the first volume, returning to New Zealand, if all goea well, to complete tho remainder.