362 Transactions. — Botany. 



Bowline's Bay, is a high table-land, mostly open and covered 

 with a scanty vegetation of Leptospermum and Pteris. The 

 declivities towards the sea, however, are mostly clothed with 

 light bush. 



Only a portion of the coast-line between Tom Bowline's 

 Bay and Hooper's Point could be examined. In many places 

 the shore is lined with tall craggy cliffs of basaltic con- 

 glomerate, on which were noticed occasional plants of Asjjle- 

 niuvi obtusatum and Coprosma haueriana, but little other 

 vegetation. Here and there are sheltered nooks and bays, 

 mostly filled with pohutukawa-trees, mixed with a few plants 

 of Sapota. Ipomcea palmata presented a gorgeous sight in 

 these localities, often climbing to the tops of the trees, and 

 everywhere laden with its magnificent mauve-coloured flowers. 

 Other noteworthy plants were Coprosma kirkii, Hymenanthera 

 latifolia (by no means common), Sicyos a7tgulatus, a^nd Sieges- 

 beckia orientalis. 



Tom Bowline's Bay is rather more than two miles long, 

 and is sandy from end to end. It is lined by a chain of low 

 sandhills not exceeding 30ft. or 40ft. in height, mainly covered 

 with Cassinia and Coprosma acerosa, although most of the 

 common arenarian plants are also represented. Immediately 

 behind the sandhills is the Waikuku Flat, a sandy or peaty 

 tract only slightly raised above high-water mark, and which 

 stretches across to the eastern coast, a distance of rather more 

 than two miles. A considerable portion of the flat is occupied 

 by a Maori settlement and its cultivations, and the remainder 

 is covered with tea-tree and Pteris. At the extreme western 

 end of the bay, and not far from the banks of the Waitangi 

 Stream, I was pleased to find large T^ia^tches oi Hibiscus diversi- 

 folius growing with great freedom and vigour, and loaded 

 with flowers. Its congener, H. trionum, was also noticed, and 

 in still greater abundance. 



The North Cape proper, which we now proceeded to 

 examine, is a high promontory with a broad and flat table- 

 like top, the average height of which is about 600ft. It is cut 

 off from the rest of the district by the Waikuku Flat, and at 

 no very distant geological epoch has been an island. Even at 

 the present time a depression of less than 25ft. would again 

 sever it from the mainland. It is about four miles in length, 

 by perhaps three in greatest breadth. It is surrounded by 

 steep and often inaccessible cliffs, usually washed by the sea, 

 so that progress along the beach, except for short distances, is 

 difficult or quite impracticable. On the top of the promontory 

 the vegetation is excessively sparse and scanty. The surface 

 soil is mostly composed of a bright-red clay or laterite, which 

 is naturally infertile, and from its stiff and tenacious nature, 

 and the absence of free drainage, is choked with water in- 



