438 Transactions. 



The surface soil of the Park to-day is very different from what it was 

 sixty-nine years ago, when the reserve was first set aside. By 1865. accord- 

 ing to Mr. Armstrong's recollections, South Park had been sown down and 

 partially levelled. North Park was much more uneven, the soil much 

 poorer, and drift sand abundant. It was covered by very slight vegetation. 

 Now, by this year 1919, every square inch has been dug or ploughed over 

 more than once. Loads of soil have been carted from the Park to the 

 Gardens for flower-beds and to form the present paths of Rollesto:! Avenue. 

 Still other loads of city refuse have been deposited in different ])arts of the 

 Park and covered over with soil, at first for the purpose of settling the 

 drift sand. Deep excavations have been made for the purpose of laying 

 electric cables or in the erection* of earthworks for the Volunteer Engineers 

 in days gone by. Certain parts of South Park have been cropped, and in 

 later years extensive areas have been planted in potatoes with the idea of 

 clearing the ground, levelling it, and preparing it for sports-grounds. Other 

 existing sports-grounds have been levelled and sown with grasses. The 

 ground on which the Exhibition buildings were erected has been thoroughly 

 disturbed, and several native plants have been seen no more since that 

 time. The laying-down of tennis-courts, cutting hay, grazing, occasional 

 bonfires — all have had a sliare in changing the character of the soil and 

 consequently the plant covering. 



The Plaxt Covering. 



In considering the plant covering of the Park it will be best to speak 

 first of the trees forming the plantations and avenues, then of the herbaceous 

 plants, paying most attention to the indigenous plants which are still to be 

 found growing here, and which may be considered as having formed ]:)art 

 of the original plant covering. It is chiefly to form some printed record of 

 what is known of these plants that this paper was taken in hand. 



First, then, some history is given of the planting of the trees. 



According to the minutes of March, 1904, Mr. H. P. Murray Aynsley 

 stated that the avenues in the Parks had been planted in the hoi)e that 

 some day a j^roper drive would be formed round the Park. Some planta- 

 tions must have been in existence in 1867, for in that year application was 

 made for the use of the grass growing within the plantations, and later 

 in the same year trespassers were reported to be injuring the trees. In 

 1868 there is a record of the damage caused to the plantations by the turkeys 

 and ])igs which had been allowed to run there. The first mention recorded 

 of the actual planting in the Park was in the autumn of 1870. when land 

 was enclosed for an avenue to extend from a plantation (probalily the pine 

 plantation west of Victoria Lake) to the entrance near Plough Inn. That is 

 now the avenue of Oriental plane trees which is one of the beauties of the 

 North Park. As stated above, these plane-trees were raised from cuttings 

 by Mr. J. B. Armstrong. A plantation of an acre was made also on the 

 high ground and sandhills north of the footpath. This was of pines, and 

 is still in existence as the pine clump to the north of the lake. That same 

 season instructions were given that " the waste ground north of the road 

 near Carlton Bridge be enclosed and planted with pines." This is what 

 is known now as Helmore's Plantation. The pines in the corner by Carlton 

 Bridge were also planted at this time. 



The following year, 1871, saw the plantation at the south-west corner of 

 the South Park fonned from trees removed from the avenues along Lincoln 



