324 Traits act ions. — Botany. 



Art. XXXV. — On the Begroivth of the Totara. 

 Bv Joshua Kutland. 



[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 16th October, 1900.1 



Of the four trees — kahikatea, matai, totara, and rimu — on 

 which the sawmills of the Pelorus have been mainly de- 

 pendent since the establishment of the timber industry in 

 the district the totara was by far the scarcest, yielding pro- 

 bably not more than 1 per cent, of the sawn timber produced ; 

 yet of all the Conifer a occurring in the Pelorus the totara was 

 the most generally distributed. Dividing the land into three 

 classes, hill-sides, level terraces, and alluvial flats, to the 

 terraces and flats the kahikatea and matai chiefly belong, the 

 former growing in the damper and swampy portions of the 

 ground, the latter en drier soil. The rimu was restricted to 

 the hills and terraces, the totara being scattered over the 

 three descriptions of land without displaying a decided pre- 

 ference for any. On steep hill-sides, on the stony soil of the 

 terraces, and on the rich alluvial land it attained dimensions- 

 which entitled it to be considered " king of the forest." 



On the shores of the Pelorus Sound, where the vegetation 

 was especially vigorous, keikei, supplejack, and other climbing 

 plants converting the forest in many places into an almost im- 

 penetrable jungle, the totara was extremely scarce. In the 

 Eai Valley, where, owing to the scarcity of climbers, the bush 

 is comparatively open, the totara is most abundant. Along 

 the summits of the ranges inland and bordering the Sound 

 there still is in many places a narrow but almost continuous 

 belt of the mountain totara, the Podocarpus hallii of the late 

 Mr. T. Kirk. 



Looking back to the sixties, on the abandoned Maori 

 clearings, which occupied most of the alluvial land in the 

 lower Pelorus Valley, there were numbers of young totara- 

 trees from 12 in. to 15 in. in diameter down to mere rods, 

 standing singly or in clumps, and forming a conspicuous and 

 very attractive feature in the vegetation of the partly open 

 land. Within the shade of the adjacent forest small totara- 

 trees were scarce ; in addition to the giants already referred 

 to, trees of useful size and saplings were dotted about, gene- 

 rally singly and far apart. 



In swampy places the kahikatea monopolized the ground, 

 on the better-drained alluvial land matai predominated, and 

 on the hilly land rimu occupied extensive areas; but, except- 

 ing the narrow belts of mountain totara, the young trees on 



