Aston. — Botanical Notes made on a Journey across tJie Tararuas. 15 



scrub. One should take the hill at the back of Phillips's hut (650 ft.), near 

 the mouth of the Pakuratahi Gorge, and, steering due magnetic north, two 

 and a half hours' walk on the ridge brings one to the summit of the hill 

 (2,000 ft.), where Mount Marchant looms largely ahead, and the lower slopes 

 of the Quoin are seen on the left in the angle formed by the junction of the 

 rivers. The Lesser Hutt Gorge is from this aspect visible for a consider- 

 able distance. Descending the hill, still through burnt standing timber, 

 another one and a half hours' walk should bring one to the base of the 

 Quoin. 



The gorge route, on the other hand, takes at least nine hours' laborious- 

 walking, the times taken on the two occasions the AVTiter traversed the 

 route being nine hours and a half and nine hours and a quarter from Kai- 

 toke to the junction ; and it is not accessible if the river is in flood. The- 

 advantages of going this way are the beautiful scenery, the impossibility 

 of mistaking the way, and the facility for studying the various forms of 

 life met with in the forests of the banks and in the unfished waters of the 

 rivers. 



Ch."ossing, to the north of the Kaitoke Station, some flat country whera 

 agriculture is being practised, judging by the Californian thistle, black- 

 berry, and gorse which impeded progress, the Pakuratahi Gorge is soon 

 reached, and little time is lost in finding the track, which leads off from 

 behind a blue cliff-face on the south side of the river. Numerous shapely^ 

 ribbonwood-trees {Plagianthus hetulinus), which always attain their finest 

 growth on silty alluvial soil, are observed growing on the flats. The track 

 is excellent, and leads through a very mixed forest, of Avhich the plants 

 noted in the appended list are observed. 



After a mile or so of this track the forest undergoes a distinct change- 

 Red-beech {Fagus jusca) is now the predominant groAvth — in fact, it is- 

 almost the only tree-growth, being supplemented only to a slight extent 

 by miro {Podocarpus jerrugineus). The ujiderscrub consists of Coprosmcn 

 Colensoi, Griselinia littoralis. Leucopogon fasciculatus, Coprosma grandi- 

 folia, Pseudopanax crassifolimn, Myrsine saNcina, Panax arboreum, Co- 

 prosma fcetidissima, Myrtus pedunculata, and Metrosideros florida, while- 

 the forest-floor is covered with Gahnia, Gleichenia Cunningkamii (umbrella- 

 fern), and moss. Here and there on stumps are patches of the beautiful' 

 Earina mucronata, the blue-berried Dianella intermedia, and a variety of 

 ferns, mostly kidney-ferns {Trichomanes reniforme). The tree-trunks are 

 covered with climbing ratas {Metrosideros hypericifolia and M. Colensoi),. 

 epiphytic growths, filmy ferns, polypodies, asteliads, Tmesipteris, and orchids^ 

 {Earina mucronata and E. suaveolens). 



The path wanders for some distance through this light open forest, and' 

 then descends suddenly to the junction of the Pakuratahi and Hutt Rivers. 

 Here the steep banks are sprinkled with bright flowering shrubs and herbs. 

 Prominent are Carmichaelia odorata, with masses of sweetly scented purple- 

 blue flowers and graceful pendulous branches, while Veronica catarractce^ 

 Gnaphalium Keriense, Oxalis magellanica, Pratia angulata, and Libertia 

 ixioides brighten the steep mossy banks with their large white flowers. 



The forest is thicker here, and the spaces are well filled with scrub ancj 

 small trees. Rimu and kamahi {Weinmannia) are the prevailing trees^ 

 with a shrubbery of Fuchsia, Pittosporum, Veronica salici folia, Schefftera,. 

 and Coprosma ; and along the banks the free-flowering Olearia nitida, toi- 

 toi {Arundo conspicua), and wood-grass {Microlcena avenacea) are plentiful, 

 and a few patches of snow-grass {Danthonia Cunninghamii). 



