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The following extract from Dr. Sinclair's letter is interesting : — 

 " The most interesting spot for a botanist near Auckland is the Ma- 

 nukau forest, about eight miles off in a straight line. In it are found 

 nearly all the timber trees of the colony, and amongst them, the most 

 imposing in appearance is the Kauri. It is, however, not so large 

 here as in the forest on the banks of the Kaipuru, the Hookianga, and 

 at other places farther north. The Manukau forest may be called the 

 present limit of the tree on that side of the island, there being very 

 few examples of it farther south, and these very small, although from 

 the quantities of the gum to be met with in the soil a great distance 

 beyond, it must have grown abundantly there in former times. The 

 quantity of Kauri timber in the forest which stretches from Manukau 

 harbour to the heads of the Wairoa and Kaipuru appears inexhaus- 

 tible, and a great portion of it is not of difficult access. It is only, 

 however, on the banks of the latter rivers that spars of sufficient size 

 for the Royal Navy can be found. Though the cutting of the timber 

 has gone on since the establishment of the colony, little impression 

 has been made on the forest, and in places where surveyors have been 

 at work for years, their labours have rarely extended a gun-shot from 

 their houses. Besides the Kauri, the other trees felled were chiefly 

 the Pohutukana and Rata {Metrosideros tomentosa and robusta) ; the 

 Puriri [Vitex litoralis), for ship-timbers and other purposes requiring 

 great durability and strength. The number of Kauri trees must be 

 diminishing, for in many places, where the felling of timber has been 

 carried on, there are no young trees rising up to supply the place of 

 others decayed from age, or cut for removal ; but that is not the case 

 in that part of the Manukau forest nearest Auckland, where the young 

 trees of all sizes are very numerous. 



" Though the Kauri does not grow to such a large size in the Ma- 

 nukau forest as in others farther north, vegetation is exceedingly 

 vigorous, and it presents an inexhaustible field of interest to the bo- 

 tanist. The trunks of the old trees are clothed and festooned with 

 Astelias, climbing Metrosideros, Orchidaceae, ferns, mosses and Jun- 

 germannise, in the greatest profusion. The deep hollows within the 

 forest are penetrated with difficulty, from the interlaced stems of the 

 Ripogonum and other under-shrubs. In the deep sheltered parts of 

 the forest, some plants are found of extraordinary size, and amongst 

 them I have measured the Areca sapida thirty-six feet high, and the 

 Cyathea dealbata attaining a height of fifty-four feet. It is along the 

 margin of the forest, however, and up the abrupt winding ravines, and 

 at the sawing stations, where the falling of lofty trees brings down 

 Vol IV. 2 n 



