Geographic Range and Internal Distribution of the Mosses Indigenous to New Zealand. By William Martin. [Read before the Otago Branch, October, 1945; Received by the Editor, January 9, 1946; issued separately, September, 1946.] This paper contains a catalogue of the mosses known to be indigenous to the mainland of New Zealand and the off-shore islands, but excludes those of the Kermadecs, Chathams, and Subantarctic Islands which are not known to occur on the mainland as well. It likewise gives an account of the known distribution of each both within New Zealand and abroad. The need for such an investigation is evident from Sainsbury's observation (Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. 62, p. 82) in 1931: “Our knowledge of the distribution of the mosses in this country is so slight that the finder of a new station for a species has practically no data on which to decide whether he is confronted with a case of discontinuous distribution, more or less extreme, or whether there is a chain of intermediate stations linking up his find with the nearest known locality … the paucity of field-workers and the outstanding difficulty of their task make it impossible for them to form any but provisional views on the distribution of even the most common species.” The comparative scarcity of bryologists and collectors and of reliable records, combined with the fact that large tracts have been investigated, either not at all or at best most superficially, even to-day makes a complete picture of moss distribution impossible. In this regard it is well to recall Sir J. D. Hooker's remark in his Introductory Essay to the Flora Novae-Zelandiae (p. vi) that, “It takes a practised eye and some previous knowledge thoroughly to explore a small district rich in Mosses and Hepaticae.” Nevertheless, a study of the following tables will reveal that more than a good beginning has been made, and the general pattern of the ultimate picture has already begun to take shape. The first account of New Zealand's bryophytic flora was presented by Sir J. D. Hooker in Volume 2 of his monumental Flora Novae-Zelandiae, published in 1855. This was followed twelve years later by his Handbook of the New Zealand Flora, part II of which enumerated some 362 mosses, of which 325 were recorded as growing on the mainland. Of these, 296 are still recognised as valid species, though in numerous cases under a revised nomenclature. Prior to these two publications Sir W. J. Hooker had in 1820 published his Musci Exotici; but all New Zealand mosses there recorded, described, and illustrated had come from the single area of Dusky Sound in Western Otago, where they had been collected in 1791 by Dr. A. Menzies. Sir J. D. Hooker's collecting was mainly confined to the Bay of Islands area.