COASTAL FOREST. 43 
exception, in most places, of the ngaio (Myoporum laetum), a lowland 
forest pure and simple comes almost to the water’s edge. 
The following trees are fairly common in coastal forest, but those 
with an asterisk are confined, or almost so, to the Northern Botanical 
Province. The kawakawa (Macropiper excelsum), the karo (Puto- 
sporum crassifolium),* its near relative P. umbellatum,* the karaka 
(Corynocarpus laevigata), the akeake (Dodonaea viscosa), the shore- 
panax (Pseudopanax Lessonit),* the ngaio (Myoporum laetum), the 
taupata (Coprosma retusa). There are certain other trees, not strictly 
coastal, of equal importance. Some of these are: The kohekohe 
(Dysoxylum spectabile), the mahoe (Melicytus ramiflorus), the kai- 
komako (Pennantia corymbosa), the titoki (Alectryon excelsum), the 
mapou (Rapanea Urvillet), and the ubiquitous manuka (Leptospermum 
scoparvum). 
In northern coastal forest the pohutukawa (Metrosideros tomentosa) 
is frequently the most important tree. With it will be the other 
coastal trees mentioned above and a number of the ordinary trees 
and shrubs of the adjacent area. There will be abundance of tree- 
ferns. Various species of Coprosma, and the rangiora (Brachyglottis 
repanda), may form a considerable proportion of the undergrowth. 
In the south of the North Island, and along the east coast of 
the South Island as far south as Cheviot, there is karaka forest. 
Whether this is an indigenous association, or whether it has originated, 
so far as the karaka goes, from trees planted near Maori settlements 
as its nucleus, is not known, but probably a good deal is the original 
work of nature. 
A forest of considerable interest is the kohekohe (or, as it is called 
in Marlborough, the ‘“ cedar”) forest, with Dysoxylum spectabile 
as the principal tree. This interest is not, as one might suppose, 
derived on account of the timber it contains, or its peculiar biological 
characteristics, but rather because it is an indication of excellent 
land for grazing purposes when the forest is removed. Consequently 
very little of this beautiful primitive association now remains; in 
its stead are prosperous homesteads, sheep, and cattle ! 
The kohekohe itself is a most beautiful tree, of tropical appear- 
ance, 20 to 50 feet high, its trunk 1 to 4 feet in diameter, its 
branches spreading and covered with pale, smooth bark. The 
leaves consist of about four pairs of leaflets 3 to 7 inches long and 
a terminal one, the whole compound leaf being up to 7 inches long. 
