360 Trannactions. — Botany. 



Maori cultivations, a walk of barely a mile brought us to 

 Spirits Bay. 



Spirits Bay is at least eight miles in breadth. It is backed 

 from end to end by a ridge of low sandhills, in many places 

 bare of vegetation, in others covered with a scanty growth of 

 Spinifex, Desmoschanus, Coprosma acerosa, Muhlcnbcckia com- 

 plexa, and other common arenarian plants. Here and there 

 the loose sand on the crest of the ridge has been blown inland, 

 exposing a much older surface of hardened and consolidated 

 sands. Over this, numerous remains of Maori occupancy are 

 scattered — lines of shell-heaps and old cooking-places, human 

 bones, and a few moa-bones. Most of the latter were very 

 fragile, and but few perfect specimens were collected. Im- 

 mediately behind the sandhills is a belt of marshy ground of 

 varying width ; behind that are low undulatmg clay hills, 

 mainly covered with short tea-tree and fern, and presenting 

 a dreary and barren appearance. Further back still lies a tall 

 conical hill called Eangitane, the summit of which is crowned 

 by the remains of a large Maori pa. At the western end of 

 the bay is a stream of considerable size — the Waitahoro — but 

 its mouth is almost always closed by a barrier of sand. An 

 extensive lagoon is consequently formed, which is entered by 

 the sea at spring-tides and during storms. Zostera is plenti- 

 ful in the lower portion of this, and higher up Buppia is 

 equally abundant. Fringing the lagoon are wide sandy or 

 muddy flats, most of which are evidently overflowed at high 

 spring-tides. Mimulus repens was common over almost the 

 whole of this area, accompanied with such species as Selliera, 

 Samolus, Chenopodnwi glaucum, Cladium junceimi, Juncus 

 maritwnis, &c. Cladium articulatum and Polygonum minus 

 were the most prominent species in the swamps at the back 

 of the sandhills. 



The eastern side of Spirits Bay is much more picturesque. 

 A little stream, the Kapowairua, enters the sea at the very 

 end of the bay. On one side are Maori cultivations — neat 

 and well-tended patches of kumaras and potatoes. On the 

 other rises a steep pinnacle of basaltic conglomerate, a perfect 

 sugar-loaf in shape, perhaps 500ft. in height. At its base is a 

 pretty little grove of karakas, mixed with a few pohutukawas. 

 The sides and summit are practically a mass of solid rock, in 

 the crevices of which occasional plants of Pliormium and 

 Arthropodium maintain a precarious existence. Further to 

 the northwards is Hooper's Point, a low, rounded headland 

 mainly covered with Arundo and Pliormium. 



In a little swamp close to the Maori settlement we ob- 

 served a few plants — certainly not more than half a dozen — of 

 the handsome Hibiscus diversifolius. It was originally dis- 

 covered in this locality by the Eev. Mr. Colenso, in the year 



