2i8 Transactions. 



Art. XXIX. — Notes on the Botany of Lake Haurolo District. 

 By J. Crosby Smith, F.L.S. 



[Read before the Otago Institute, 2nd August, 191tJ.] 



Having long had the desire to make a botanical excursion to the mountains 

 lying to the west of the great Waiau River, in the south-west of the fiord 

 country, and especially to those parts surrounding Lake Hauroko, and 

 known as the Princess Mountains, I welcomed the opportunity of doing 

 this that presented itself in February of this year (1910). Our party con- 

 sisted of Mr. Robert Gibb, Mr. Vernon C. Smith, and myself. 



Having crossed the Waiau, our route to the lake lay by the main road 

 through the bush, past Clifden, and on past the Lillburn, to what is known 

 as Gardner's, or the " end of the track." Two miles from Gardner's the 

 track leads on to low peaty land extending for a mile, which has until 

 recently been covered by a young forest of bog-pine {Dacrydimn BidwiUii). 

 We were informed by Mr, Gardner that this bog-pine had been burnt out 

 during the previous dry summer. Gradually the " birch " forest {Fagus 

 Solandri and F. Menziesii) is reached, and continues more or less for the 

 rest of the distance to the lake. Here and there in the gullies, which are 

 very numerous, will be found Coprosma foetidissma, C. rotundifolia, Metro- 

 sideros lucida, Panax Colensoi, Senecio elaeagnif alius, Drimys colorata, 

 Leptospermum scoparium, and others ; also Dicksonia squarrosa, Hemitelia 

 Smithii, Aspidium flavidum, Lomaria fluviatilis, L. discolor, Gleichenia 

 Cunninghamii, Pteris aquilina, P. incisa, Asplenium bulbiferum, Todca 

 superha, and Hymenophyllum spp. 



As the lake was neared the vegetation became thicker and the ferns 

 more numerous and taller. The first glimpse of the lake, as its waters 

 glimmer and shimmer through the trees in the bush, is beautiful. The 

 track comes out on a long arm of the lake facing Mary Island, a distance of 

 five or six miles from the lower end of the lake. Across the lake the high 

 mountains of the Princess Range, with their towering peaks of Albert 

 Edward and Alexandra, form a majestic background. These mountains 

 appear almost precipitous, being bush-clad up to 3,000 ft. or more, the 

 bare tops being covered with the usual alpine flora. 



As there is no record of a botanist having visited the lake previously 

 (except perhaps Mr. G. M. Thomson, in the early " eighties," but who on 

 account of bad weather did no collecting), we had decided to examine both 

 sides of the lake for plants and birds, and for this purpose we hired a boat. 

 As we opened up the lake we found the shores to consist entirely of pre- 

 cipitous wooded hills, nowhere less than 3,000 ft., and rising to 5,000 ft,, with 

 sharp and rugged peaks, and with more than a score of waterfalls shooting 

 on both sides. With the exception of a couple of beaches from one to two 

 ucres in extent, there is no flat land. The only other possible landing-places 

 are where the many steep creeks or waterfalls have filled up the edge of the 

 lake with boulders : consequently, until we reached the head of the lake, 

 it was only on these small patches we could land to make investigations. 



Lake Hauroko is about twenty-five miles long by one mile wide, and, 

 being formed at the bottom of a deep gully, becomes most treacherous to a 

 rowing-boat, the wind sweeping down it as down a funnel. On account of 



