370 Transactions. — Botany. 



aurata." In his " Students' Flora " Mr. Kirk mentions three 

 localities only in which this form has been observed, and 

 states that only one specimen has been seen at each of 

 the places he names, none of which are in the Auckland 

 District. I am of opinion that this form, while not common, 

 is by no means as rare as has been supposed, for I know of 

 two plants at Maungatapere, near Whangarei, and four plants 

 in this district. Near Mauku, too, a form with orange-red 

 stamens is not uncommon. 



By making a short detour from the road we can visit a 

 piece of bush on Mr. West's land, in which a few trees of 

 Libocedrus doniana and Phyllocladus trichomanoides are to 

 be seen. Neither of these species are at all common. In 

 another part of this bush are a few plants of Marattia 

 fraxinea. 



Skirting the village of Waiuku, we come on to the Kario- 

 tah Eoad, which leads to the coast, and after about two miles 

 on an easy grade the road begins to ascend. Just before 

 reaching the first of the sandhills there is a small pond on 

 the roadside, dry in summer. In this I found the somewhat 

 rare grass Amphibromus. This has been figured and described 

 by the late Mr. Kirk as a new species, but I understand there 

 are doubts as to whether it is not the Australian species, A. 

 neesiana. Judging from his figures, the specimens Mr. Kirk 

 obtained in the Waikato lakes were very poor compared with 

 those I got in this little wayside pond. 



From this spot a few minutes' ride brings us to the first of 

 the sandhills. On the right is a clear and apparently deep 

 lagoon covering an area of 5 or 6 acres. This lakelet has 

 been formed by the ever-advancing sand damming up a 

 small creek, whose waters now percolate through about a 

 quarter of a mile of sand and come out in a deep ravine, 

 through which the creek flows down to the beach. 



We now enter the Kariotahi Gap. These " gaps," of 

 which there are several between the Manukau and Waikato 

 Heads, are the only means of access to the beach. Through 

 each of these flows a small creek, which probably assists in 

 some measure in keeping these passes open. When well in the 

 gap the scenery, to my mind, is suggestive of a desert. The 

 sand is generally of a dark hue, owing to the presence of con- 

 siderable quantities of ironsand. The monotony of the scene 

 is broken by a view of the ocean at the lower end of the gap, 

 and by a few arenaceous plants, such as Co'prosma acerosa, 

 Scirptis frondosus, and Arundo conspicua, the latter being al- 

 ways a most conspicuous plant on sand-dunes and in inland 

 swamps. In a swampy place at the edge of the gap I found 

 Mentha cunvinghamii, Epilobium billardierianum, Haloragis 

 depressa, and Juncus ccespititius. The lower part of the 



