appointment of draughtsman and botanist to the Geological Survey of Otago, then being organized by Dr. (now Sir James) Hector. In the two or three years immediately following he accompanied Sir James Hector in a succession of adventurous journeys, during which a great part of central and western Otago was visited and explored. The collections made, which were mostly forwarded to Kew, contained many interesting and remarkable discoveries, among which may be mentioned Ranunculus Buchanani, Pachycladon novæ-zealandiæ, Hectorella cæspitosa, Azorella exigua, Celmisia ramulosa, Veronica Buchanani, &c. In 1865 Mr. Buchanan prepared his "Sketch of the Botany of Otago," the first local Flora issued in the colony, and a work of considerable merit, evidencing much industrious research. It was written at the request of the Commissioners of the New Zealand Exhibition of 1865, but was not actually published until 1869, when it appeared in the first volume of the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute. On the establishment of the Geological Survey of New Zealand in 1866 he was appointed draughtsman and botanist, and removed to Wellington. He was successively engaged in botanical explorations of the North Auckland Peninsula, the Kaikoura Mountains, and Mount Egmont, some interesting notes on the two last-mentioned districts being printed in Vol. x. of the Journal of the Linnean Society. In 1873 he published a valuable paper on the flora of the Wellington Provincial District; followed in 1874 by his "Flowering-plants and Ferns of the Chatham Islands," based on the collections made by Mr. H. H. Travers in 1863 and 1871. His most important work, published in 1880, is the "Indigenous Grasses of New Zealand," a folio volume of nearly two hundred pages, illustrated with sixty-four lithographic plates. It contains descriptions of the whole of the species then known to inhabit New Zealand, together with notes on their economic value, distribution, &c. Mr. Buchanan's contributions to New Zealand botany include forty separate papers, stretching through twenty volumes of the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute. His last communication appeared in 1887, after which persistent ill health compelled him to give up botanical work. His death took place in 1898. His earlier collections were mostly forwarded to Kew, but in later years he formed an extensive herbarium for the Colonial Museum. His private collections, drawings and analyses, manuscript notes, &c., were bequeathed to the Otago University Museum.
No account of the history of botanical discovery in New Zealand would be complete without reference to the labours of Sir James Hector, the first Director of the Geological Survey and Manager of the New Zealand Institute. Arriving in the colony in 1861, his first duty was a geological and topographical exploration of the Province of Otago, a work which at that time involved many difficulties and hardships, and no small amount of danger. As previously mentioned, he obtained the services of Mr. Buchanan as collector and artist;
