This two-volume work was published by the New Zealand Government Printer in 1914. It contains 251 uncoloured lithographic plates, illustrating 268 species of native flowering plants, conifers, ferns and fern allies. At the time of its appearance, Thomas Cheeseman was the most notable botanical taxonomist in New Zealand. Illustrations was preceded by his unillustrated Manual of the New Zealand Flora (Government Printer, 1906). In fact, Cheeseman's Manual, a second edition of which appeared in 1925, two years after he died, remained the "official" New Zealand flora until the appearance in 1961 of volume I of Flora of New Zealand by H. H. Allan.