124 A NEW ZEALAND NATURALIST'S CALENDAR. 



(Sopliora tetmptem) are occasionally to be found, the 

 latter especially on sunny hillsides. Both of these plants 

 it must be remembered have their flowers fertilised by 

 birds not by insects, so that in this respect they are not 

 dependent on the season. The species of Fuchsia found 

 in New Zealand are peculiar to these islands, while the 

 genus is chiefly developed along the whole length of the 

 great mountain chain of the Ancles. But the kowhai the 

 same species as occurs here- is also found in Chili and 

 Juan Fernandez, a distribution almost the same as that of 



Kowhai (Sophora tetrapterd). 



our common tutu. Both kinds of plants are probably 

 relics of an Antarctic flora which formerly overspread the 

 now icebound lands of the Antarctic Circle at an age when 

 the climate of that most inhospitable region was like that 

 of the present warm temperate zone. The kowhai is 

 interesting to the botanist for several reasons besides that 

 of its geographical distribution. It belongs to the great 

 natural order known as the Leguminosa3, and to that 

 division of the order characterised by flowers resembling 

 those of the common pea. This kind of flowers is usually 

 so well marked in its general appearance that almost any 



