446 Transacfions. 



and arc also accessible to them are probably doomed : these are the Car- 

 michaelia, Haloragis, G>taphalium jajwnicum, and Erechtiies. Others which 

 fortunately possess some property rendering them distasteful to the grazing- 

 aninials, or which are j^rovided with some means of vegetative propagation, 

 or with seeds which are easily distributed, will continue to flourish unless 

 actually uprooted and destroyed. The tussock is proof against most things 

 save fire and cattle ; the rushes and sedges flourish where damp conditions 

 prevail, and are safe round the margins of the lakes ; the Acaena and 

 Epilobium are provided with easily distributed seeds ; the habit of the 

 cotulas is a useful one in elbowing out competitors ; and the acrid juices 

 of the hydrocotyles protect them from the hoi-ses which are at present 

 their only enemies. 



The fact that our native flora does disappear before European plants 

 has been recorded more than once. In 1875, in his New Zealand Handbook, 

 Juhus Vogel states that " the lower hills, especially of the Peninsula, were 

 rapidly covered with English grass and clover, which spread of their own 

 accord, rapidly killing the native pastures " (p. 127). The reasons for this 

 are not hard to find. In 1882 Mr. T. F. Cheeseman gave some of them in 

 his paper '■ On Naturalized Plants of Auckland District " {Trans. N.Z. Inst., 

 vol. 15, pp. 268-98). He points out that the advent of European settlers 

 introduced a set of conditions injurious to the indigenous fauna and flora. 

 They destroyed the vegetation to make room for houses, roads, &c. Thev 

 introduced herbivorous animals, such as sheep, cattle, horses, which rapidlv 

 ate down all j^lants that they found palatable. These might struggle against 

 such treatment for a longer or shorter time, but in the end they perished 

 from this continual cropping, and their place was taken by plants protected 

 in some way from the attacks of animals, either by the possession of thorns 

 or acrid juices, or by others which were able to exist when eaten. Examples 

 of such plants among the natives would be Discaria, Poa, Danthonia, &c. 

 Then, again, the practice of burning large tracts of vegetation destroyed 

 many of the natives, and the native flora had no plants which could take 

 possession of fresh soil laid bare in any of these ways, whereas the European 

 weeds found here an environment quite suited to them and for which they 

 had been modified for many years. 



When this is remembered it is astonishing not that we have so few native 

 plants still remaining in our Park but that we have so many. Grazing- 

 animals were introduced here almost at once : part of the Domain known 

 as the ■■ old pinetum " is the site of an old deer-paddock. Pheasants and 

 hares introduced by the Acclimatization Society worked havoc in Domain 

 and Parks, and much damage was caused in early days by pigs, while sheep 

 have been grazing contiiiuously for sixty-nine years. 



An interesting experiment, suggested by Professor Wall, Avould be the 

 enclosure of a suitable portion of the Park where the native jilants should 

 be given every opportunity of living under conditions as similar as could 

 be obtained to those originally existing in the Park. European weeds 

 should be removed, and native plants now no longer found in the Park 

 but originally growing there should be obtained from such places as the 

 Waimakariri River bed and encouraged to grow in this enclosure. The 

 number of plants that could re-establish themselves under these conditions 

 could then be determined. The place need not be an eyesore to the general 

 pubhc, and the horse-paddock now existing would be a very suitable site 

 for such an ex])erimental plot. Needless to say, the scientific value of 

 such an experiment would be very great. 



