62 Mr William Gorrie on New Zealand Plants 



diameter, somewhat resembling the stems of tree ferns. 

 Three-year-old plants have stood uninjured, without as yet 

 showing any appearance of forming tufts or stems. 



28. Arundo conspicua (New Zealand Kced, Tohi-Tohi or 

 Toe-Toe of the natives). — This tallest of New Zealand 

 grasses frequently exceeds 10 feet in height; and bears a 

 considerable resemblance to the now generally known 

 pampas-grass of South America (Gynerium argenteuvi), 

 but its elegant feathery white panicles are produced in July 

 instead of October, as are those of the latter, compared with 

 which it is decidedly more tender, and was so much injured 

 last winter that ray old plant had to be lifted, and those 

 portions that were alive replanted. 



29. AsPlDiUM EiCHAKDi {Polysticlium aristatum). — Height 

 6 to 10 inches. This fern has stood in my rockery without 

 protection for the last fourteen years, and its remarkably 

 dark green, rigid shining fronds, entitle it to much more 

 general cultivation than it has yet received. 



30. ToDEA suPERBA (LejHoptcris supcrba, the superb New 

 Zealand Filmy Fern). — This most elegant of ferns has 

 grown well with me for the last six years in a cool frame 

 at the north back of a garden wall, having only a thin 

 covering of tiffany under the glass to ensure for it the deep 

 shade of its native forest habitats. When the plant came 

 into my possession its fronds were only about 9 inches long, 

 but now several of them are more than twice that length. 

 On lifting the frame-sash where it was growing during tlie 

 hardest frosts of the present and last winter, T found the 

 soil about it a solid frozen mass, while its densely crowded 

 minute pinnae, which retain the condensed moisture, were 

 separately enveloped in a white icy covering, so that the 

 fronds far surpassed the finest ostrich feathers in elegance. 



In concluding these remarks on the few New Zealand 

 plants which have been objects of cultural experiment with 

 me, I may state that their number is much too limited, and 

 the indigenous habitats of most of them are at too low 

 altitudes to convey any idea of the variety and extent of 

 the botanical treasures suitable for our climate which still 

 await introduction from the snow-capped Canterbury and 

 Southern Alps, as well from other elevated mountain ranges, 

 of which may be mentioned the following from among 



