Aston. — Vegetation of Tarawera Mountains. 311 



W. Lo)/iana ^awceokto Spreng. Above 1,400 ft. Spores. 

 W. — ■ — • pemia marina Trev. Above 1,400 ft. Spores. 



W. capensis Willd. Above 1,400 ft. Spores. 



W. Asplenium adiantoides C. Chr. Spores. 



W. lucidum Forst. Spores. 



W. flaccidum Forst. Spores. 



W. Polypodium pennigerum Forst. Spores. 



W. serpens Forst. Spores. 



W. Billardieri R. Br. Spores. 



Naturalized Plants. 



? Trifolium repens Linu. Possibly introduced by rabbits, hares, torses, 



or pigs. 

 W. Erigeron canadensis Linn. 

 W. Hypochaeris radicata Linn. 

 W. Anagallis arvensis Linn. 

 W. Oenothera odorata Jacq. 

 ? Erythraea Centaurium Pers. 

 ? Rumex Acetosella Linn. 



If the above Hst be analysed it will be seen that of ninety-one species 

 observed on the isolated north-western face, twenty-four (or 26 per cent.) 

 may be called bird-distributed, fifty-three (or 58 per cent.) wind-distributed, 

 and only fourticen (or 15 per cent.) are difficult to account for. 



The absence of certain species may be noted. Perhaps, of forest-trees, 

 the absence of all species of Nothofagus would be dismissed lightly, as few 

 patches of Nothojagus forest are known in the Rotorua area ; but on looking 

 more carefully into the matter it is certainly singular that the highest moun- 

 tain in that neighbourhood should not have been peopled by Nothofagus, 

 were it not that its seeds are not obviously spread by birds or wind. Indeed, 

 a knowledge of how Nothofagus seed is distributed may perhaps help to 

 solve many points in the distribution of the genus at present a puzzle to 

 ecologists. The genus occurs at Waimarino and on the volcanic mountain 

 Ruapehu (four species), on the lower slopes of the Kaimanawa Mountains 

 (three species), on Mount Hikurangi, on Te Aroha Mountain (volcanic), 

 in the Mangorewa and Omanawa Gorges, and on the Matai Road near Te 

 Puke. 



Buchanan (29) in 1866 noted that the forest on Mount Egmont (an 

 isolated volcanic mountain more distant from any Nothofagus forest on 

 non-volcanic mountains than is Ruapehu, Tarawera, or Ngongotaha, and 

 rising from sea-level to 8,200 ft.) is chiefly peculiar through the absence of 

 Nothofagus, and his observations, which related to a limited portion of the 

 mountain, have been confirmed for the remainder of the area by subsequent 

 observers.* On the other hand, Ruapehu (9,175 ft.) and Te Aroha (3,126 ft.) 

 are not many miles distant in an air- line from Nothofagus-clsid geologically 

 ancient mountains, and therefore, judging from analogy, Nothofagus should 

 some day appear on TaraweraT 



Dracophyllum is a genus which occurs very sparingly on this portion 

 of Tarawera, and Ixerha, Dacrydium, Podocarpus, Melicope, Carmichaelia, 

 Carpodetus, Phyllocladus, Fusanus, and Parsonsia, all plentiful in the 



*The author ascended Mount Egmont to the summit by the Inglewood track on 

 the 14th February, 1901, and again on the 20th March, 1910. 



