290 IOWA STUDIES IN NATURAL HISTORY 
many people violated the courtesies, cutting, carrying off and 
otherwise destroying the plants, he said he was hoping to continue 
the plan as he wished the people of Auckland to enjoy all that 
he had as long as possible. Within this preserve are many fine 
specimens of the species of major forest trees and a great wealth 
of small woody plants including shrubs, twiners and also certain 
perching plants. The forest floor had a wealth of mosses and 
liverworts and a luxuriant growth of ferns; the most noble of 
these were the huge tree ferns Cyathea medullaris in the borders 
of the stream valley, some of which were over fifty feet in height. 
Mr. LeRoy assured me that this was a measured and not an esti- 
mated height. 
Late afternoon took us up past his home but he walked a mile 
with us down to the ferry-landing from which we took the boat 
back to Auckland. As we were walking to the ferry, I thought- 
lessly expressed to Mr. LeRoy my hope that he had sons who 
could enjoy what he had built up and carry his public spirit into 
the next generation. He did not reply for a moment and then 
said, ‘‘My only son entered the war and was lost.’’ This illus- 
trated to us again the tragedy of the Great War to New Zealand 
and all other parts of the British Empire, where apparently every 
able bodied man of anywhere near military age was in the service. 
You never asked a young man, ‘‘ Were you in the war?’’ If you 
mentioned it at all you simply asked, ‘‘What was your service ?’’ 
It ill-becomes us of this ‘‘great and friendly nation,’’ as they 
described our America, to talk much about the war. We ean 
never explain to these friends our tardy entrance into the conflict 
nor our hasty withdrawal following its close. 
Leaving Auckland on a very early train the next morning I was 
surprised and pleased to find Mr. LeRoy searching through the 
train to find me. He had taken the earliest ferry on that chilly 
winter morning in order that he might place in my hands a num- 
ber of fine steroscopic views of his park. I have used these with 
all of my classes since my return and the students have greatly 
enjoyed the fine pictures of Mr. LeRoy’s preserve and its great 
fern trees. 
Late in July I moved from Auckland to Wellington at the 
southern end of North Island and traveled the entire distance of 
over four hundred miles by daylight. In this way I was able to 
study a trans-section of the island noting the general aspects of 
