00 



VEGETATION OF THE 



upon ratlicr inferior soils, and ascends to a higher level than the Pines. 

 Young specimens of this are very pretty, but the old tree has a very 

 mournful funeral appearance : it is sawn up into timber, along with 

 the trees I have mentioned before ; but the timber, though rather or- 

 namental, is not much esteemed. These are the only timber-trees of 

 this district : they are the largest trees, and constitute the largest por- 

 tion of the forest, upon the low grounds. Interspersed among them 

 are smaller trees, the Titoki, the Miro,* the Taua,t and others. As you 

 ascend to the higher levels these trees begin to be mixed up with an 

 increasing proportion of what we call the Birches (Beeches), and at an 

 elevation of say 1500 feet, the forest which clothes the hill-sides is 



entirely composed of these or nearly so. On the way to the Wai 



at the highest part of the road, we pass through a forest ten miles 

 long : there is but one Pine to be seen in this from one end to the 

 other, and, with the exception of here and there a Fuchsia^ an Arista- 

 ieha, and a few other straggling undershrubs, the entire vegetation 

 consists of these Beeches. That there are several species of them I am 

 well satisfied, but how many I am altogether unable to say. I have 

 fancied that the leaf changes its character according to the age of the 

 tree ; for under one of the trees, I have found a great number of seed- 

 lings, with leaves very different from that of the overshadowing tree, 

 from which it was reasonable to suppose that they were derived : I have 

 very little doubt that some species of them would thrive in the open 

 air in England. On Gordon's Nob I met with them at an eleva- 

 tion of about 4000 feet, but quite dwarfs, bent with the wind and hung 

 with Lichens : this was the kind with the smallest leaf. It is not very 

 common to meet with the seed, but I have seen it : it is a triangular 

 nut, very much like Beech-mast, but much smaller. Some of the Al- 

 pine Veronicas would also, I have very little doubt, succeed in the 

 open air in England : these are exceedingly pretty Uttle plants. In 

 the manner of their growth and the an-angement of their leaves and 

 flowers, they ai-e very symmetrical. One of them, which I sent to you, 

 I found in flower on the 1st of October, a5an elevation of about 20OO 

 feet, where it must have been exposed even at that period of the year 

 to occasional sharp frosts. 



The botany of the eastern and western sides of this island wiH be 

 found, I fancy, to differ very much. The great primitive range of the 



* Podocarpus fenuginea, Don. f Nesoda^hne Tawa, H.f. 



