58 MR. J. BUCHANAN ON THE BOTAJNT OF 



to the supposed difficulty or danger of ascending Mount Eg- 

 mont, that Mr. Henry and others are frequently up, and that, in 

 fact, it is becoming an everyday trip to the Taranalcites. A 

 party of eight went up the day after us, and placed a flag on the 

 top. 



Although aE who go up do not collect plants, still many do j 

 and it is probable that no locality in New Zealand has been better 

 searched. Plants have been passing to Britain from there through 

 various channels for many years. All idea, therefore, of finding 

 anything new may be dismissed for good ; and the result of the 

 present expedition has proved this. 



Strong hopes were entertained by myself that many of the 

 more minute plants of various genera known as Patch-plants, 

 and which had been overlooked by collectors, were yet to be 

 found ; but, with the exception ofHaouUa australis^ no Patch-plant 

 was seen on Mount Egmont. The idea that there were any ori- 

 ginated in a mistake of the informant, who mistook large patches 

 of a white moss {Leucobryum candidurn) for flowering Patch-plants ; 

 and to a person who paid no attention to the subject, the mis- 

 take was very easy, as many small .flowering plants, such as Cel- 

 misia glandulosa, Forstera Bidwilliij and Euphrasia cuneata^ are 

 often found growing among the moss. 



Mr. Richmond says this front route ia incomparably more 

 laborious than the back one taken by him and his brothers pre- 

 viously ; the only dangers in either ascent are being hemmed in by 

 the creeks rising, and running short of provisions. Dry weather 

 appears to be exceptional in this locality, the mountain being 

 seldom all seen : clouds are found on some part of it every day ; 

 and one party may be at the bottom in miserable wet weather all 

 day, while another may be enjoying beautiful sunshine at the 

 top ; this actually happened with our party and another. 



From the town, by the Carrington road, the route lies for 

 twelve miles through clearings in the bush on each side to Code s 

 Hut at the last clearing. Here tlie horses are left ; and every- 

 thing carried on the back to the base of the cone at the head ot 

 the Eocky River, a distance of twenty miles. 



From Code's Hut the track is entirely through bush, rising 

 by a gradual and easy ascent to an elevation of 3500 feet, where 

 the hill emerges from the bush into an open shrubby region. 

 The bush passed through differs in nothing but an absence of 

 the Fagus genera from the bush in "Wellington; the VH^^ 

 lilforalis is found on the lower levels, but it is not likely it go^» 



