112 Transactions. — Botany. 



The potato is sometimes cut by frost, even so late as 

 November, within one mile of the sea ; it is grown with 

 success at times at so cold a station as the upper roadman's 

 hut, Bealey Valley, altitude 762 m. The French bean is 

 grown, at any rate, up to an altitude of 400 m., but at both 

 Castle Hill and Bealey it is killed by frost. The vegetable- 

 marrow has been grown successfully both at Mount White 

 and Bealey. Finns insignis is the common shelter-tree all 

 over the plains ; it is quite hardy at Castle Hill, but of 

 much slower growth than in warmer localities. The same 

 remarks also apply to Cupressus oiiacrocaiya. The grape- 

 vine, unless when trained against a wall, will not bear fruit 

 in the open ; under this treatment it will ripen its fruit even 

 in the central portion of the plains. Ulex eitropceiis is a 

 weed of grass-paddocks, sand-dunes, and river-beds, frequently 

 growing to a height of 4 m. or more, and forming impenetrable 

 thickets. At an altitude of 600 m. it ceases to become a 

 weed, the climate perhaps being too severe for the seed- 

 lings with their different leaf-structure to the adult, and, 

 although growing well enough when planted, it does not reach 

 any great dimensions. Hypocharis raclicata ascends to the 

 grassy alpine meadows, occurring even in the more stony 

 ground. The laurel regularly ripens its fruit at Craigieburn 

 in the garden of the homestead, altitude 605 m. The goose- 

 berry has naturalised itself abundantly in the Castle Hill 

 Fagns forest, in clearings, and bears abundance of small fruit. 

 Eucalyptus globuhis''- grows well at 500 m. altitude, at the base 

 of Mount Torlesse. 



Speaking generally, plants of the cold temperate zone will 

 thrive anywhere in the lower mountam and lowland regions, 

 while species belonging to the Mediterranean and Californian 

 floras are usually hardy up to 400 m. Australian and South 

 African plants, those of the higher regions excepted, are not 

 usually hardy even near the sea. The Cape of Good Hope 

 silver-tree, hardy in hillj- stations near Dunedin, will not 

 endure even the mildest winter of the Canterbury Plain. 

 Pelargoniums and Cape heaths require the protection of a 

 wall near New Brighton, although quite hardy at Sumner, 

 only a few miles distant, where they are sheltered by the 

 Port Hills from the south-west wind. 



Although not nearly so favourable a locality as many 

 others in this Island — e.g., Dunedin — exotic alpine plants can 

 be grown even near the sea-coast as easily as in England, 



* This exceptional winter, 1899 {vide ante), has killed the leaves, at 

 any rate, of nearly every bluegum tree in the middle and upper portions 

 of the Canterbury Plains, Eome of which must have been more than thirty 

 years of age (see Appendix, vfhere are also some observations regarding, 

 the laurel). 



