EASTERN BOTANICAL DISTRICT. 189 
blackberry (varieties of Rubus fruticosus) both here and in the North- 
western Botanical District is a most aggressive plant when the forest 
is cleared. 
The Eastern Botanical District is not so dry as the North- 
eastern, consequently the special dry-rock association of Olearia 
msignis and its accompanying plants (described in Chapter V) is 
wanting. There are a considerable number of species peculiar to 
the district, some of which are of most restricted distribution—e.g., 
Angelica trifoliata (sphagnum bogs of Mount Torlesse); Veronica 
anomala (Rakaia Gorge) ; Anisotome patula (limestone rocks, Burke’s 
Pass); Myosotis decora (limestone debris, Trelissick Basin); Heli- 
chrysum dimorphum, a scrambling liane, so far found in only two 
localities near the Waimakariri River at about 1,700 feet altitude. 
More widespread are Ranunculus Enysu, Dracophyllum aciculan- 
folium, Gentiana serotina, and Celmisia pseudo-Lyallic. 
Banks Peninsula might quite well be considered a subdistrict of 
the Eastern Botanical District, owing partly to certain species being 
restricted to it—e.g., Veronica Lavaudiana, Celmisia Mackaw, and 
Senecio saxifragoides ; and partly because of its originally widespread 
forest with totara (Podocarpus totara) dominant, and its small band 
of northern plants—e.g., the nikau-palm (Rhopalostylis sapida), the 
karaka (Corynocarpus laevigata), the mariscus-sedge (Mariscus ustu- 
latus), and the New Zealand passion-flower (Tetrapathaea australis). 
From the standpoint of its vegetation the Hastern Botanical 
District is distinguished by isolated, not continuous, forests, which are 
largely composed of either the black southern-beech (Nothofagus 
Solanderi) or of totara or matai mixed forest in the lowlands, and 
of the mountain-beech (Nothofagus cliffortioides) in the mountains. 
Originally there were small kahikatea (Podocarpus dacrydioides) 
forests near the coast, of which the already-mentioned Riccarton 
Bush in Christchurch City (generously donated to the nation by the 
original owners, the Deans family) is the sole surviving example. 
The greater part of the district is, or originally was, covered with 
low tussock-grassland of the usual type, with fell-field at the higher 
altitudes. 
Agriculture on ploughable land consists principally of rotation 
farming, in which wheat plays an important part. A conspicuous 
feature of distribution, from the agricultural standpoint, is the 
inability to successfully grow hard turnips each season owing to the 
