510 Transactions. — Botany. 



The naturalists of Cook's first voyage landed at what is now 

 Poverty Bay, and is referred to in the journals of the expedi- 

 tion as Te Oneroa, — although, as I learn from several friends, 

 that name is properly applied to the long beach on the north 

 side of the bay. Their next landing-place appears to have 

 been Uawa, or Tolago Bay, and the last Tigadu, or Anaura. 

 At these three places they gathered upwards of 250 out of the 

 360 species of flowering-plants and ferns collected during their 

 stay in the colony. 



About seventy years elapsed before the East Cape district 

 was again visited by a naturalist. In 1838 the Eev. W. 

 Colenso paid his first visit to the cape. In passing, I may ex- 

 press the pleasure felt by all present as we realise that, after 

 an interval of nearly sixty years, he is still in the enjoyment 

 of good health, and following his favourite pursuits with an 

 amount of enthusiasm that might be envied by many younger 

 men. Of his first visit no account appears to have been pub- 

 lished, but in November, 1841, he landed at Wharekahika, 

 now known as Hicks Bay, and appears to have occupied about 

 three weeks in travelling to Poverty Bay, whence he struck 

 inland in a slightly south-easterly direction to Waikaremo- 

 ana, a large lake of irregular shape situate at an altitude of 

 2,015ft. above sea-level; thence he travelled eastward to Lake 

 Tarawera. During his examination of the district he made 

 several additions to the flora, amongst them being the plant 

 now known as Pittosporiwi ralphii, T. Kirk, of which he • 

 writes, " Waipiro to a short distance beyond Tapatahi. I dis- 

 covered ... a species of Pittosporum, which at first I 

 took for P. uvibellatum, Banks, but have since discovered it to 

 be a distinct and probably a new species, ranking between P. 

 crassifolium and P. umhellatum" (p. 17). It was during this 

 journey that he discovered the beautiful fern Todea superba, 

 now probably the most widely known of all the New Zealand 

 species. In 1844 Mr. Colenso published in Launceston an in- 

 teresting account of this journey, under the title of " Excursion 

 in the Northern Island of New Zealand in the Summer of 

 1841-42 " — a work which has become extremely rare, and from 

 which the above extract is taken. I have been unable to find 

 any published account of his ascent of Hikurangi, where he 

 was the first to discover such remarkable plants as BanuncuUis 

 insignis, Hook. f. ; Aciphylla colensoi, Hook. f. ; Olearia 

 colensoi, Hook. f. ; Veronica tetragona, Hook., &c., which attain 

 their extreme northern limit on this lofty peak. 



The late Dr. Sinclair landed on the East Cape about 1849 

 or 1850, where he discovered Carmichaelia juncea, Hook, f., 

 but does not appear to have travelled far inland. For more 

 than twenty-five years my valued friend the Bishop of Waiapu 

 has travelled through the district and carefully noted the 



