74 NEW ZEALAND PLANTS. 
essential before seed can be produced; but so much has been 
written on this subject that no details need be given here. Other 
orchids, again, are self-pollinated. 
Coming next to the manuka-thicket plant-associations, the most 
varied is that of the Auckland gumlands, where the number of 
species is about 81. As one proceeds south the species gradually 
become fewer in number. In gumland thicket, beneath the manuka 
there is frequently a dense growth of the green rush-like Schoenus 
Tendo or S. brevifolius mixed with the yellowish-green pine-like club- 
moss Lycopodium densum, or each of these may form colonies of its 
own. Other common plants of this association are — bracken-fern 
(Pteridium esculentum) ; the three species of Pomaderris (P. phylicae- 
folia, P. elliptica, and P. Edgerleyi), all of them small shrubs with 
inconspicuous flowers — the first-named having very small, rolled, 
hairy leaves, the second a more erect plant with bluish-green oblong 
leaves covered beneath with whitish hairs, and the third is of more 
spreading habit, with narrower leaves covered beneath with a rust- 
coloured dense mat of hairs; the tall mingimingi (Leucopogon fasci- 
culatus), a shrub very like the manuka, but of the heath, uot the 
myrtle, family; the northern needle-leaved heath (Dracophyllum 
Urvilleanum), an erect, grass-like shrub of slender habit with long 
needle-like leaves; flat-stemmed tussocks of Lepidosperma laterale ; 
another heath with very small overlapping ovate sharp-pointed leaves 
(Epacris pauciflora), pleasing from its abundant small white flowers ; 
yellowish young non-flowering trees of the tawhero (Weimmanma 
sylvicola), extremely hard to distinguish from the adult of the maka- 
maka (Ackama rosaefolia), a plant of the margin of kauri forest or 
near streams; that showy tree-daisy, with large broad stiff shining 
leaves, silvery beneath, the akepiro (Olearia furfuracea) ; a miniature 
cabbage-tree, at most 3 feet high but generally smaller, the ti-rauriki 
(Cordyline pumilio) ; and, in some localities, the toru (Persoonia toru), 
a small closely-branched tree with thick leathery polished brownish- 
green narrow leaves, 6 inches long, more or less. In the association 
towards its northern limits the curious climbing leafless parasite, 
Cassytha paniculata, spreads its yellow cord-like stems from shrub to 
shrub, like the web of a monstrous spider, thus forming a little above 
the ground veritable entanglements, which may cause one to stumble. 
On the pumice-covered tableland towards the centre of the North 
Island the thicket changes its character. Certain of the northern 
