T. Kirk. — Displacement of Species In New Zealand. 15 



weasel, the greater portion of the injury has been effected by 

 animals which have been introduced through inadvertence or 

 accident. 



Natural Eeplacement amongst Plants. 



Before considering the injuries sustained by the flora from 

 the numerous naturalised plants, it seems desirable to de- 

 scribe a kind of natural replacement which may be observed to 

 a greater or less extent in nearly all forest districts. On 

 forest or scrub being felled and burnt off, unless grass-seed is 

 sown immediately, certain species of fungi or of mosses make 

 their appearance, Fanaria connivens (Hampe), being perhaps 

 the most frequent ; next, the bracken; more rarely, GleicJicnia 

 circinata (Sw.). The latter, however, is soon overpowered by 

 the former, and the entire area is quickly covered with a 

 luxuriant growth of " aruhe," thus affording a suggestion as to 

 the way in which the wide fern-clad " pakihis " were origi- 

 nally formed and the timber replaced by fern. But a more 

 striking form of replacement is often to be witnessed : a dense 

 growth of the makomako {Aristotelia raccviosa, Hook, f.) 

 takes the place of the pines and broad-leaved trees which have 

 ftillen under the axe. Not infrequently the makomako forms 

 a kind of coppice, the dense growth killing off' most of the 

 branches, so that the plants form long, straight rods ; the 

 stronger individuals, outgrowing the others, develope branches, 

 and, being thus enabled to assimilate a larger amount of 

 nutritive matter, become more robust, and, gaining, complete 

 mastery, prevent the weaker from obtaining their fair por- 

 tion of air and light, so that at length they die out, 

 leaving the more vigorous specimens to form a mako- 

 mako grove ; these repeat the process amongst them- 

 selves, the weakest continually going to the wall, until the 

 undergrowth becomes more or less open, when various shrubs 

 and trees make their appearance, and a new piece of mixed 

 forest replaces the makomako, which has become compara- 

 tively rare. In many parts of the Kaipara the first tree 

 to make its appearance after a clearing has been formed is 

 the fuchsia (F. excorticata, L. f.), which often occurs in vast 

 abundance, to the exclusion of almost all other plants ; it 

 grows less rapidly, however, than the makomako, and is 

 more speedily interspersed with other shrubs and trees. 

 Another plant which often makes its appearance in large 

 quantities after clearing is the poroporo (Solanum avlculare, 

 Forst.), which is less permanent than either of the preceding. 

 In 1864, owing to the Maoris having fired upon our troops 

 along the line of the Great South Eoad, between Drury and 

 the Waikato, the heavy forest on each side of the road vv^as 

 felled for a width of about 2 chains and burnt off" when a 



