Reviews

This long-awaited volume is the last of the new Flora of New Zealand and treats 121 genera in 21 tribes with 460 species, of which 226 are introduced and 46 ‘transient’, i.e. introduced but not persisting, against 188 native ones of which not less than 157 are endemics. Most of the latter belong to the Poeae (49 + 41 others), Agrostideae (45 + 58) and Danthonieae (43 + 15) showing the present temperate nature of the grass flora. This structure of the grass flora is briefly discussed, but its origin is considered ‘unsuited to a flora’. It is a pity that no reference is given to a place where this is done, instead. Of general interest to the New Zealand Flora is the extensive literature list (‘annals’) completing the ones given in previous volumes with indices on families and additional scientific subjects. Curiously, they run up to 1996, while elsewhere (p. xxix) references as late as 1999 are indexed. M.I. Dawson contributed a survey of the chromosome numbers of indigenous species. It may be noted that for Lachnagrostis filiformis 2n = 28 and 56 have been reported, although Edgar & Connor say no chromosome numbers are known for the genus (p. xxiv).