66 A NEW ZEALAND NATURALIST'S CALENDAR. 



Flowers become rarer as the autumn advances, but there 

 are always numerous kinds still to be obtained, especially 

 at high elevations. I have recorded as many as forty-two 

 species flowering in this neighbourhood during this month 

 of March, and these can only be a small proportion of the 

 total number, as at this late season of the year a collector is 

 seldom on the lookout for flowers, and passes over without 

 notice many which were met with at an earlier date. 

 Among late-flowering plants two or three are of especial 

 interest. Thus March is the usual time to find the 

 autumn-flowering Earina (E. AittumnalisJ, one of the 

 prettiest of local orchids, in blossom. It is one of the 

 epiphytic forms, growing on the surface of rocks and on 

 branches of trees. Its roots are exclusively aerial, and 

 their white tips are enclosed in a thick spongy tissue which 

 has great power of absorbing moisture, but, apparently, 

 does not again part with it by evaporation. The white 

 waxy flowers are very fragrant, and are quite incapable of 

 self -fertilisation. They must therefore be visited by 

 insects probably small flies before they can set seed. 



Native gentians, too, mostly flower this month, and 

 their white blossoms make the uplands quite gay. An 

 introduced allied plant, the centaury (Erythrcea Cen- 

 taurium), is often very much in evidence in pastures 

 both the pink and the white-flowered variety its bitter 

 juice rendering it distasteful to all grazing animals. 

 The native poro-poro (Solanum aviculare}, whose name is 

 often corrupted into bulli-bulli, flowers late into autumn. 

 It is a true potato, as can easily be seen by comparing 

 its flowers and fruit with those of the common edible 

 species. 



III. 



I have notes of numerous birds visiting the gardens 

 during this month of March, no doubt for the sake of the 

 fruit still to be found there. In early days kakas and 

 parakeets used to be recorded, but it is many a day since 

 even the latter were to be seen near Dunedin. But tuis 

 and korimakos having now reared their young broods 



