JANUARY. 47 



woody forms are entirely southern. Carpodetus is allied 

 to the common Escallonia of our gardens, as a comparison 

 of the flowers will show. 



The two native myrtles which occur in this island 

 (My)ius obcordata and M. pedtmculata) both flower in 

 January. All plants of the myrtle family have one char- 

 acteristic feature in common, though it is by no means 

 confined to them if held up to the light their leaves are 

 seen to be full of clear spots. These are little cavities in 

 the leaf-tissue which are filled with an oily fluid, and it 

 is this \vhich gives the translucent character. Our two 

 myrtles are not only distinguished by their leaves M. 

 obcordata having heart-shaped leaves with a deep notch at 

 the apex, and M. pedunculata having rounded apices, but 

 also by their berries, the former being black or violet in 

 colour and the latter orange-yellow. 



As one comes out on the more open ground above the 

 bush, when climbing the hillsides, there is generally 

 abundance of native flax Phormiuin tenaoc to be found 

 in flower. Phormium is a curious genus only found in 

 New Zealand and Norfolk Island, and therefore probably 

 of considerable antiquity, but distantly related to the 

 beautiful Blandfordias or Christmas Bells of New South 

 Wales. Its dull red flowers are not very attractive in 

 colour, but they contain a great quantity of nectar, and 

 in haunts undisturbed by men they are visited by numbers 

 of native birds, not only tuis and korimakos, but kakas* 

 and parakeets, all of which brush the abundant sweet 

 fluid out of the blossoms. The genus has in all pro- 

 bability developed its extremely tough leaves partly as 

 a protection against moas, and partly as a protection 

 against excessive exaporation, though this is only a 

 matter of conjectiire. 



Among the flax occur many small tree-ferns belonging 

 to the genus Alsophila, so called from two Greek words 

 meaning grove-loving ; but the only New Zealand species 

 * The Kaka or Bush-parrot (Nestor meridionalis}. 



