26 [February, 



family. Much of the forest, especially in the south and on the higher 

 mountains-slopes, consists chiefly of several species of Fagtis, but 

 elsewhere there is a considerable variety of trees, notably the fine 

 Conifers known throughout the Colony by their expressive and 

 sonorous Maori names, the Rimu {Dacrydium cupressinum) , the 

 Totara {Todocarpus totnra)^ the Matai {P.spicntd) and the Kahikatea 

 (P. dacrydioides), all noble trees yielding valuable timber. The 

 Kauri {Agatlns australis), one of the grandest trees in the world, 

 exists only in any quantity to the north of Auckland, where the once 

 extensive forests composed almost entirely of this tree have been of 

 late years sadly reduced, and its practical extinction is imminent. 

 For the most part, the mixed " bush " is of a very dense and impene- 

 trable character, from the luxuriance of the undergrowth and ferns, 

 and the prevalence of climbers, two at least of which deserve special 

 mention, as forming the principal obstacle in traversing the woods. 

 The " Supple-jack," Uliipoyomim scandens, is a member of the family 

 LiliacecE, which straggles over the highest trees, and its bare brown 

 stems near the ground resemble nothing so much as an intricate 

 tangle of two-incb rope, through which it is often impossible to force 

 one's way. But a much worse obstruction is the " Bush Lawyer," 

 Hubus australis,-w\\\c\i climbs in dense masses over shrubs and stumps, 

 especially at the edge of the bush. Every leaf of this detestable 

 plant, which produces a small dry berry not worth eating, is armed 

 along the back of the midrib with a series of recurved spines like 

 cats' claws in miniature, and the damage to net and garments, to say 

 nothing of temper, incurred in getting through the undergrowth 

 where " Lawyers " abound, may be better imagined than described. 

 It has, however, one point in its favour, as it is one of the most 

 remunerative plants to beat for CoJeoptera whenever the umbrella 

 can be got fairly under a suflBciently old and dense mass. In the 

 more open spaces, especially in the North Island, are wide stretches 

 of high bracken (Pteris aquilina, var. esculenfa), and, in poor soils, 

 of the " manuka " or " tea-tree " {Leptospermum scoparium and 

 L. erieoides), shrubs or small trees bearing a profusion of sweet- 

 scented white blossoms, that are very attractive to many insects ; and 

 in swampy places especially, the New Zealand flax, Phormium tenax, 

 is the prevalent and most characteristic plant, with its sword-shaped 

 leaves five or six feet long, and loose spikes of dark red flowers on a 

 stem sometimes ten feet high. Flowers are on the whole somewhat 

 scarce in the " bush," though some of the trees, especially the golden- 

 yellow Kowhai {Sopliora tetrapliylla)^ and the glorious crimson and 



