JUNE, 119 



end of Duke Street. There grew such delicate filmy ferns 

 as Hymenophyllum rarum, australe, and subtllissimum 

 (pray excuse such long names, which we must adopt in 

 default of any better), besides many commoner species. 

 The tiny fronds are only one cell thick, and in a dry 

 atmosphere the moisture evaporates from both surfaces 

 quicker than the small roots and slender stems can supply 

 it. There may be a few shady spots and sheltered gullies 

 about Pine Hill and Mount Cargil where these tender 

 plants survive, but as a rule one has to-day to go many 

 miles back in the bush to find them. They are things of 

 the past as far as Dunedin is concerned. 



The first time I went up Nichol's Creek, before the days 

 of roads and fences, gates and tolls, the banks were thick 

 with filmy ferns, mosses, and liverworts, and single and 

 double grape ferns. On the moss-covered stones in the 

 creek bed were clumps of the curious little purple spider- 

 like orchid Corysanthes rivularis, intermingled with tufts 

 of the white-flowered Oxalis magellanica or wood sorrell. 

 They are all gone, dried up or trodden under foot, and one 

 must go far to find their nearest neighbours. 



Along the south side of the Leith, on the slopes above 

 M'Glashan's Mill, there used to be several fine specimens 

 of the "milk tree" (Epicarpurus microphyllus), which 

 exuded a quantity of milky sap when its brittle branches 

 were broken. Most, if not all, of them are now gone. 



Leaving the Leith to follow up Ross's Creek towards the 

 reservoir, the damp dripping green walls of rock on the 

 right hand which formerly used to yield such a rich harvest 

 to the microscopist are now nearly dry and bare ; while the 

 forest-clad slopes which kept them moist are now cleared 

 and more or less occupied by cottage gardens. The 

 Wakari or School Creek, which has its origin close to 

 the old school at Halfway Bush, and joins Ross's Creek 

 halfway between the mill and the reservoir, was formerly 

 a clear stream ; and the famous Forty -foot Hole so called, 

 I suppose, because it is not 40 feet deep the delight of 

 Kaikorai boys, was an ideal bathing place. But we have 

 changed all that. A fellmongery or wool-scouring estab- 



