VOLCANIC PLATEAU AND EAST CAPE DISTRICTS. 183 
broad-leaved cabbage-tree (Cordyline indivisa), for example, may 
be quite an aggressive plant where forest in its vicinity has been 
destroyed. A negative feature in the primitive vegetation is the 
absence of grassland, the place of which is taken by manuka shrub- 
land. 
In the farming areas of the North and South Auckland Botanical 
Districts there are splendid meadows of Paspalum dilatatum, and 
Lotus hispidus also forms pastures both artificial and adventitious. 
In orchards oranges and lemons are grown with success. It may be 
pointed out with regard to grassland generally that in these districts 
a greater diversity of primitive plant-associations are turned into 
grassland than is the case in any part of New Zealand. Certain 
introduced plants do not occur south of the Auckland Botanical 
Districts—e.g., Helenium quadridentatum, Tolpis umbellata, certain 
species of Hpacris, Solanum sodomaeum, the ink-weed (Phytolacca 
octandra), the water-lily already mentioned (Oftelia ovalifolia), and 
the wild rice (Zizania aquatica). 
Coming next to the Voleanie Plateau Botanical District, the 
monoao (Dracophyllum subulatum) is an extremely characteristic 
feature of the shrubland, as is its relative the red heath (D. recurvum) 
of the scoria deserts of the volcanic alpine area, where it forms 
reddish rounded bushes. Tussock - grassland, both tall and low, 
covers considerable areas, so that mountain shecp-runs are estab- 
lished. Totara (Podocarpus totara) and mountain-totara (P. Hallii) 
are important constituents of the forest. The high-mountain flora 
assumes considerable proportions, and the following species, which do 
not reach the South Island, may be cited: The Egmont buttercup 
(Ranunculus nivicola), the box-leaved pimelea (Pimelea buxifolia), 
“a small-leaved ball-shaped koromiko (Veronica laevis), the pumice 
whipcord koromiko (V. tetragona), two lovely low-growing koromikos 
(V. Hookeriana and V. spathulata), and the dainty North Island 
eyebright (Huphrasia tricolor) (fig. 59). 
With regard to the East Cape Botanical District, attention may 
be called first of all to the fact that a number of well-known northern 
New Zealand trees have their south-eastern limit in its northern part. 
Such are the kawaka (Librocedrus Doniana), the toru (Persoonia toru), 
the parapara (Pisonia Brunoniana), the mangeao (Litsaea calicaris), 
the tawheowheo (Quintinia serrata), the tawari (Ixzerba brexioides), the 
karo (Pittosporum crassifoliwm), the tawhero (Weinmannia sylvicola), 
