CoLENSO. — Oil the Tongariro District. 491 



terested me much ; it was plentiful, and grew prostrate, having 

 a racemose inflorescence and baccate calyx, which gave it a 

 singular appearance, as if double-fruited : this is, I think, var. e 

 of Sir J. Hooker's G. rupestris. A distinct species of Epacris 

 {E. alpina) was also here, but, unfortunately, it was not fully 

 in flower. In damp spots (but only in two places) two curious 

 species of Drosera were found — D. binata (remarkably finej, 

 and the much rarer one, D. arcturi, a plant of the Australian 

 and Tasmanian mountains — the only time I ever met with 

 this latter species ; together with a rather scarce orchideous 

 plant, Prasophyllum nudum; and in the thickets adjoining, 

 by the sides of the mountain-streams, Phylloclaclus alpinus 

 and several species (or varieties) of Aristotelia with small 

 leaves were noticed. A peculiar - looking small restiaceous 

 plant, a species of Ccdorophus, was also obtained here in a 

 boggy spot. I had found a similar plant several years before 

 in bogs at Whangarei, and near Cape Maria Van Diemen, but 

 in each locality only a little of it. Of the cyperaceous order, 

 I collected two species of Schcenus {S. concinna and S. parvi- 

 florus), Garpha alpina, Isolepis auchlandica, and also several 

 species of Carex, among them being a British species, G. stellu- 

 lata. In dry gravelly spots I also detected Asperula perpu- 

 silla (which I had last year discovered in similar situations at 

 the base of Tararua Mountain-range, in Palliser Bay), and 

 the moss-like tufted Baoulia austraUs was not infrequent. 

 Many beautiful plants of the lichen order I also met v^dth. 

 Prominent among them were several species of Gladonia, par- 

 ticularly GG. capitellata, aggregata, retipora. and cornuco- 

 pioides, this last strongly reminding me of the pretty (never- 

 to-be-forgotten) British species G. beUidioidcs, which at first 

 I supposed it to be, from its bright vermilion-red globular 

 tubercles sj)riuging from the edges of its tiny cups. G. retipora, 

 often found in large tufts in undisturbed spots, is one of the 

 most elegant of lichens ; its regular reticulated open structure 

 is wonderful. A few curious fungi new to me I also obtained ; 

 and in a still- water bend in a streamlet I came upon a large 

 mass of that peculiar fresh-water alga, Batrachospcrmum 

 moniliforme — the only place I ever found it in New Zealand. 



" At 3 p.m. we crossed the sandy desert called Te Onetapu 

 — a most desolate and weird-looking spot, about two miles 

 wide where we crossed it — a fit place for Macbeth' s witches, 

 or Faustus's Brocken scene. About it, too, the old Maoris have 

 many peculiar stories and superstitious fears, some of which 

 I have no doubt are agglutinated around a nucleus of reality. 

 Here and there burnt logs lay, scattered and embedded in the 

 volcanic sand, as if where a fiery eruption from the neigh- 

 bouring volcano had issued forth in times long past upon the 

 then living forest. I noticed also that much of these anciently- 



