Cheeseman. — On the Flora of the North Cape District. 353 



further, we camped for the night in a Httle hollow near the 

 edge of the drifting sands. 



Our camp was within a short distance of a celebrated 

 pohutukawa-tree widely known to the northern Maoris by the 

 special name of Kahika. It has an enormous crown of spread- 

 ing branches, which are buried in sand almost to their tops, 

 no part whatever of the trunk being visible. Notwithstanding 

 the immense amount of sand which must be piled around it, 

 the tree has every appearance of health and vigour. Accord- 

 ing to the Maoris, it is of great antiquity, and has for genera- 

 tions been used to mark the boundary of the lands belonging 

 to a particular hapu. It is evidently the tree mentioned by 

 Dieffenbach in his " Travels in New Zealand " (vol. i., p. 201), 

 although he erroneously calls it a puriri. Probably he was 

 never actually close to it. As it stands on the eastern slope 

 of the sandhills it is a conspicuous object from most parts of 

 Parengarenga Harbour, and Captain Drury, in the "New 

 Zealand Pilot," uses it for one of the leading marks for enter- 

 ing the harbour. 



The next morning we crossed the drifting sandhills to the 

 coast, the greater portion of our road being down a broad 

 sandy valley called Kanaparana. On either side were tall 

 sandhills absolutely bare of vegetation, but in the moist sand 

 near the stream some interesting plants were observed, such 

 as Eleocharis neo-zealandica, Myriophyllum pcdunculatum, 

 Gunnera arenaria, &c. From the mouth of the stream a walk 

 of three miles brought us to the bold rocky bluff called Puke- 

 karea, locally known as Scott's Point. This is the northern 

 end of the sandy beach, which, commencing at Ahipara, runs 

 thus far — a distance of over fifty miles — without a single break. 

 The vegetation on the cliffs proved most disappointing. It con- 

 sisted mainly of Arundo, Phormium, Cassinia, ArtJiroj^odiiuu, 

 Ajpium, and Mesembryanthemitm. Coprosma baueriana was pre- 

 sent in small quantity ; and in one little bay I observed a few 

 plants of Hymenanthera latifolia. Panax lessonii and Fuchsia 

 procumhens were plentiful in a small gully. On a sandy flat 

 at the foot of the cliff, evidently often used as a camping- 

 ground, Polypogon monspcliensis was abundantly naturalised. 

 A curious Nertera, probably undescribed, was common in 

 grassy places. Finding it impossible to make our way any 

 further by the beach, we ascended to the top of the bluff, 

 which formed a broad plateau with an elevation of from 400ft. 

 to 500ft. A more dreary place can hardly be imagined. Ex- 

 posed to the full force of the westerly gales, the wind-swept 

 soil was in many places entirely bare of vegetation. Usually, 

 however, it was covered with a dwarf growth of tea-tree, 

 mixed here and there with Cyathodes and Leucopiocjon. At 

 the very edge of the chffs were large patches of Zoysia,. 

 23 



