NEW ZEALAND—EGBERT H. WALKER 335 
The Sounds-Nelson District has remnants of forests almost identical 
with those of the preceding district, of which it has been considered 
only a part (6, 8). Cook Strait is less of a natural boundary than 
the parallel of 42°S. which crosses South Island below this Sounds- 
Nelson District. The striking features of this district are the 
beautiful long, rugged sounds in the north and scattered, lofty moun- 
tains toward the south. The climate is one of the best in New Zealand, 
and agriculture of a more mixed nature than in most parts is well 
developed in the valleys and lowlands, especially about the principal 
city, Nelson. From this progressive center one can readily reach the 
diverse botanical associations and seek the unusually large number of 
endemics. The famous Mineral Belt crosses this district with its 
vivid exhibition of the effect of an excess of magnesium in the soil 
on plant growth. Here at a nonalpine elevation are alpine and other 
plants with a dwarf or dwarfed habit growing on the mineral or 
serpentine belt only a few yards from rich taxad and southern-beech 
forests growing on nonmineral soil. One of the principal interests 
of the Cawthron Institute in Nelson is in mineral deficiencies in 
agricultural soils. Hops, tobacco, and fruits are among the crops 
grown in this district. 
The Northwestern District is a mountainous area with some broad 
valleys. The rainfall is heavier, especially in the southern part, 
than it is farther east and agriculture is less well developed. It con- 
tains about 30 endemic species including Pittosporum (Pittosporaceae), 
a species of the epiphytic tree genus Metrosideros (Myrtaceae) 
(pl. 2, fig. 2), a native broom (Carmichaelia fieldui—Leguminosae), 
gentians, forget-me-nots, and species of the variable woody genus 
Hebe (Scrophulariaceae). This genus is so closely related to Veronica 
with only herbaceous species that they are often combined under the 
latter name. Here one finds certain wet areas called pakihis. They 
would be considered bogs if they contained more peat. They are 
underlain by an impervious soil of “‘iron pan” and stones, causing 
water to collect on the surface. Characteristic plants are sedges of 
the genus Cladium, the bog umbrella-fern (Gleichenia umbellata) not 
found between here and North Auckland, and a gentian. Here also 
occurs H’pacris pauciflora of the family Epacridaceae, which in this 
part of the world furnishes the heaths, as the closely related Ericaceae 
do in the Northern Hemisphere. There are, furthermore, a few orchids, 
sundews (Drosera—Droseraceae), an endemic species of an endemic 
genus, Siphonidium longiflorum (Scrophulariaceae), and a few other 
plants, as well as that amazingly adaptable shrub, manuka. 
In the Northeastern District there are very few forests, except in 
the Seaward Kaikouras, the coastal one of several mountain ranges 
which dominate this essentially dry area, characterized by low tussock 
grasslands. Here occurs one of the two almost desert regions of 
