Cheeseman. — 0)1 the Flora of the North Gape District. 347 



plant was obtained near the Hariliaia Stream, which dis- 

 charges into Ahipara Bay about half a mile to the west of 

 Mr. Eeid's house. Since the discovery the coast has been 

 searched for a considerable distance, but no additional plants 

 have been seen. Miss Reid, who found all the specimens, 

 kindly showed me the exact localities, but with the closest 

 scrutiny I failed to find any further trace of the plant. Mr. 

 Kirk, in the recently-issued volume of Transactions, has paid 

 me the compliment of suggesting the name of Cordyline 

 cheescmanii for it. It is possible that he may be right in 

 considering it to be distinct ; but its affinity to C. terviinalis 

 is evidently very close, and in the absence of flowers and 

 fruit I should be inclined to place it with that species. 

 It is worth remarking that both the localities where the 

 plants were found have been at one time cultivated by the 

 Maoris. 



The next morning we started for the extreme north. Our 

 road was the magnificent sandy beach which stretches with- 

 out a break from Ahipara to the rocky coast near Cape Maria 

 van Diemen, a distance of over fifty miles. Smooth and even 

 from end to end, and beaten firm and hard by the daily wash 

 of the tide, it puts to shame the most perfect productions of 

 Macadam. On our left was the open ocean, with the ever- 

 lasting roll and roar of its waves on the shore ; to our right 

 mile after mile of low rounded sandhills, bare of vegetation, 

 and drifting inland with every gale. For fully two miles after 

 leaving Ahipara the sandhills were covered with Maori 

 kitchen-middens and shell-heaps, an indubitable proof of the 

 former existence of a large population. Most of them dis- 

 appeared when we reached Waimimia, the outlet of the 

 Wairoa Stream. Here was a large brackish-water lagoon, 

 devoid of vegetation except a few patches of Bu2)pia. Cross- 

 ing the stream, the rising tide compelled us to walk at the 

 very base of the sandhills, which for miles were fringed with 

 Svinifex and Desmoschoenus. In moist places near high- water 

 mark such plants as Selliera, Saviohts, Grantzia, Lepiocarims, 

 and Paspalum disticMim were occasionally seen. Further 

 away from the sea the sandhills were generally bare ; but 

 here and there small areas were covered with Cassinia lepto- 

 2)hyUa, Goprosma acerosa, Muhlenbeckia cofiijjlexa, Arundo, 

 and other arenarian plants. For many miles — quite fifteen, 

 indeed — no change was noticed, and the sameness in the 

 coast-line became distressingly monotonous. At length we 

 reached a place known as Waihi, where some beds of lignite 

 crop out a short distance from the beach, forming blufi's 10ft. 

 or 12ft. in height. They are capped by sandhills, and every- 

 where at the junction of the sand and lignite water oozes out, 

 trickling down the face of the cliff and forming a narrow 



