512 Transactions. — Botany. 



Tongariro. Large portions are still covered with dense forest, 

 of which Vitex lucens is an important constituent in the 

 northern portion of the district. A good road runs from Gis- 

 borne for about twenty-five miles towards the Motu Forest, 

 whence a bridle-track is continued to Opotiki, passing through 

 some of the most striking forest scenery in the North Island. 

 The most important lake is Waikaremoana ; it is 2,015ft. 

 above sea-level, and of most irregular shape — about eleven 

 miles in length, and eight in its greatest breadth. It is 

 said to be the most beautiful lake in the North Island, the 

 cliffs by which it is surrounded rising in some places to fully 

 1,100ft. above its level. Waikare-iti, a small lake 3,122ft. 

 above sea-level, is supposed to be the highest lake in the 

 island. 



The following description of the "road" between Opotiki 

 and Gisborne, written by Mr. H. B. Kirk, will give the 

 reader a good idea of the broken character of the northern 

 part of the district : — 



" The traveller from Opotiki to Gisborne has a choice of 

 two roads — to use the name that charity gives with more or 

 less — generally much less — appositeness. If he decides to go 

 by the coastal road he proceeds along the beach for about nine 

 miles, and then at once realises that he has reached the point 

 at which the hills have come in good earnest to the shore. 

 He follows a well-made bridle-track over the spurs above the 

 sea until he reaches Torere and, later, Hawai. There is now 

 no made road, a road between Hawai and the Motu Eiver 

 having been allowed to become impassable. The shingle beach 

 is the only road, and at high water, or in bad weather, it is a 

 most unpleasant one. Above the beach rise cliffs and hills, 

 the former almost or quite perpendicular. To these cliffs the 

 pohutukawa clings with wonderful persistency. The Motu 

 Eiver has a bad reputation, and deserves it. It is the Wai- 

 makariri of the Bay of Plenty. At the mouth its bed is about 

 three-quarters of a mile wide, but the river so seldom occupies 

 the whole of it, that tall manuka and light bush are allowed 

 to form patches in many places. From the Motu there is 

 again a bridle-track, skirting generally the tops of the chffs, 

 and running tlirough forests of pohutukawa to Omaio. Here 

 Garynichaelia williavisii is found. Just beyond Omaio the 

 Haparapara Eiver is crossed, and the traveller, keeping gene- 

 rally to the beach, which becomes more tolerable as the hills 

 recede a little, comes to Te Kaha Point, still fertile after 

 perhaps thirty years' crops of maize have been grown with no 

 rotation. Prom Te Kaha the track, where there is one, con- 

 tinues to skirt the coast. Here the numbers and warlike 

 habits of the old population are constantly recalled to mind by 

 deep trench and bank cutting off all suitable points of land as 



