1921] W ILSON, NOTES FROM AUSTRALASIA. II 235 



teresting are the various Ratas (Metrosideros spp.) which in the thick 

 forests often commence Hfe as epiphytes on the Taxads, Conifers and 

 other trees. For a time they behave as ordinary root cHmbers but when 

 their roots reach the ground their strangle-hold on the supporting tree 

 intensifies and the Rata grows round completely enclosing and kilUng 

 its former host. Often these same species of Rata grow and behave as 

 nor-nal trees do from their youth onward. The wood is heavy, hard and 

 tough and is used for cross-arms on telegraph and telephone poles. But 

 next to the Gymnosperms the most interesting trees are the species of 

 Nothofagus which in many parts of the South Island and the more south- 

 erly parts of the North Island form dense, pure forests of considerable 

 extent. Especially is this the case in the drier parts in stony gulhes and 

 on the tops of moderately high mountains; in some places they even 

 descend to sea-level. The bark is more like that of the Common Horn- 

 beam than that of our northern Beech. The Nothofagus regenerate 

 readily and singularly resembles our Hemlock {Tsuga canadensis Carr.) 

 in general appearance. I saw only small or moderately large trees but 

 was told of specimens 100 feet tall and 25 feet in girth of trunk. They 

 grow thickly together and in pure forests allow no undergrowth. Quite 

 often patches of Nothofagus occur in the ordinary mixed forests but 

 whether under these conditions they are intrusive or vestigial it is difficult 

 to determine. 



The forests of New Zealand are not only full of interest but highly in- 

 structive phylogenetically since their cycle is clearly manifest. The types 

 are old, very old, even many of the broad-leafs, and the country itself is 

 but a minute remnant of a vast continent which once linked together South 

 America on the one hand and Tasmania and eastern Australia on the 

 other. First in the dim and distant pa^t above the Mosses, Ferns and 

 other Cryptogams rose the Taxads and the Kauri soon to be followed by 

 other Conifers. Possibly the very species existing today but in so far as 

 the sequence of forest types is concerned it does not matter whether it 

 were they or their ancestral types. For a period these trees, unchal- 

 lenged, forested all the suitable land. Later came the broadleaf dicoty- 

 ledonous trees, the struggle for supremacy began and today the broad- 

 leaf usurpers hold the field. There are no Cycads in New Zealand and 

 the arborescent Monocotyledons are limited to a few small trees which 

 include two Cordylines {Cordyline australis Hook, f . and C. indivisa Kunth) 

 and a Palm (Rlwpalostylis sapida H. Wendl. & Drude) known as the 

 Nikau. To these may be added the scandent Freycinetia Banhsii A. 

 Cunn. which scales to the tops of the highest trees. 



In the dense forest shade the New Zealand Taxads and Conifers cannot 

 grow. The seeds often germinate but the seedling plants die after a short 

 struggle. The broad-leaf trees on the other hand regenerate readily in 

 the forests. Wliere the Taxads and Conifers flourish the soil is humus 

 and peat from 3 to 6 feet deep and it is seldom that the roots descend 

 into the mineralised subsoil. When planted in ordinary soil they grow 



