478 Transactions. — Botany. 



is true that the fern or tea-tree is not long in I'easserting itself , 

 but the animals continue their work, and sooner or later the 

 grass must get the mastery ; so that the native growth, if it 

 does not disappear altogether, will be broken up into patches, 

 when a fire of large extent will become impossible. 



This comparative cessation of fires will have a marked 

 effect on the country. By degrees the dead timber, which now 

 forms such an unsightly fringe to the bush, will decay and dis- 

 appear, and, instead of furnishing fuel for further destruction, 

 will help to fertilise the ground. The trees which are able to 

 bear the new conditions will take on fresh vigour, and the 

 seedlings, whether within the forest or forming an independent 

 growth, will have an opportunity of coming to maturity. 



8. The Besidmim. 



This state of things, however, is still in the far distance, 

 and when it does take place the residuum will be much smaller 

 than is generally supposed. The rate of destruction is greater 

 at the present time than at any former period ; and it is pro- 

 bable that for some years to come it will increase rather than 

 diminish. Bush settlement is being pushed on all over the 

 country to meet the wants of the growing population, and the 

 timber industry is keeping pace with an extending market. 

 The kauri and kahikatea forests are being rapidly exhausted, 

 and every available stick of rimu, totara, black-pine, birch, 

 and puriri is being removed from the general bush to supply 

 material for house- and ship-building, for bridges and railway- 

 sleepers, for wharf-piles and telegraph-poles, for mining-props, 

 posts and rails and palings and shingles, for gum-boxes and 

 butter -kegs, and so forth — and, as the favourite timbers 

 grow scarce, recourse will necessarily be had to the now 

 lesser-known varieties. So far any attempt at conservation 

 lias been futile, if not actually mischievous, and will doubt- 

 less continue so until the community awakens to a sense of 

 its loss, when reform will come too late to be of much use. 

 Arguing, therefore, from present facts and tendencies, we 

 must face the conclusion that, with the exception of the 

 " second growth," together with certain comparatively insigni- 

 ficant remnants scattered through the broken districts from 

 which most of the character will have departed, the perma- 

 nent residuum of the New Zealand bush will be practically 

 confined to the high mountain-ranges, more especially in the 

 south and west, where the land is generally rugged and 

 precipitous and the rainfall abundant. 



In predicting the appearance of the bush of the future it 

 is, of course, impossible to deal in other than very general 

 terms. As at present, it will vary with every accident of soil, 

 chmate, and aspect. But, speaking generally, we may expect 



o 



