366 Transactions. — Botany. 



famous as the scene of an encounter between the Forest 

 Rangers and the Maoris during the war, when the old church 

 of St. Bride was utilised as a stockade. 



Ascending the first hill, we follow a track through a piece 

 of bush in which the more interesting plants are Melicope 

 ternata and its variety mantellii, Gahnia lacera, Uncinia 

 banksii, Pterostylis trullifolia, bulbophyllum turberculatum, 

 Botrycliium tematuvi, and Piper excelsum. Passing on 

 through Leptospermum scrub, we enter the remains of an 

 old pa, and so to the summit of the highest hill. From this 

 point a splendid view is obtainable all around. Not far from 

 the Trig, station on the summit is a small patch of Luzula 

 campestris. Towards the west there are several small gullies 

 which furrow that side of the hill. In one of these are two 

 plants of Entelea arborescens, the only ones I have yet seen 

 in the district. Mr. Cheeseman, however, informs me that 

 it is found in the sandhills between Waiuku and Manukau, 

 a part of the district I have not yet had time to explore. 



In several places on this and the other hills are outcrops 

 of sandstone, usually of a more or less rounded appearance, 

 as though (as probably was the case) they had at some dis- 

 tant date formed bluffs on the bank of some river, or, per- 

 haps, sea-shore. In a dry spot at the base of one of these 

 bluffs I found a stunted form of Carex inversa, a plant not at 

 all common in the district. Here and there, in crevices of 

 the rocks or among the scrub which clothes a greater part 

 of the north and west sides of this hill, are to be noted plants 

 of Doodia media and Aspidium richardii, neither of which are 

 at all well represented in this neighbourhood. In many of 

 the larger gullies separating the Bald Hills there are still 

 considerable patches of bush. In the upper part of one of 

 these, where the soil is light and dry, I found the finest 

 specimens of Asplenium Jiookerianum I have yet seen. In the 

 lower part of another, through which flows a small stream, 

 in the deep shade of the forest, are some tine specimens of 

 Marattia fraxinea, now becoming so rare in our Island. On 

 many damp clay banks, on the edge of or near to the creek, 

 are many hundreds of seedling plants. In this same bush 

 Coprosma, spathulata occurs freely, and here I discovered one 

 plant with crimson drupes, a rather unusual occurrence. 

 Higher up and near the edge of the bush Carex vacillans is 

 not uncommon, and among scrub just outside the bush are 

 a few plants of Dodoncea viscosa. 



Ascending this hill from the bush we come to a large pa 

 on its summit, passing, in the more open parts, Burner 

 flexuosus. Scirpus nodosus. and here and there Olearia 

 solandri. The two last are usually maritime plants. This 

 hill overlooks the Lower Waikato and the Ake-ake Swamp. 



