When botanist Leonard Cockayne (1855–1934) first received an invitation from the German publisher Engelmann to write an account of the botany of New Zealand, much of it was still unknown. He spent the period from 1904 to 1913 immersed in fieldwork, and his first edition was not published until 1921. In this 1928 second edition Cockayne extensively updates the text, adding the results of further research from the intervening years. This work gives detailed descriptions of New Zealand's plant life, but Cockayne also considers the history of botanical study of the islands, from Captain Cook's voyages in the eighteenth century onwards, and includes the arrival of colonial plant collectors and an overview of important publications by New Zealand botanists. The descriptions of vegetation cover the sea coast, the lowlands, mountains, and outlying islands, and there are extensive photographs, offering a comprehensive guide to New Zealand's botany.