MOERAKI. 191 



noticed a patch of the Cape Gooseberry, or Tipari,* as it is 

 called in India, growing wild in the bush. This would be 

 an interesting acquisition if it would increase and grow as 

 it does further north in this colony, for its fruit makes 

 most beautiful and excellent jam. But it is here near its 

 southern limit of growth, and only ripens its berries in 

 warm seasons. The Ngaiot (usually mispronounced Kaio 

 in the southern part of the colony) is the tree which seems 

 to thrive best along the coast. Many fine specimens occur 

 near the roadsides, and it might be more extensively 

 planted with advantage to the landscape and for the sake 

 of its usefulness. Its wood, though not produced of a large 

 size, appears to be of excellent quality, and we were 

 interested to see that it was being made use of in the 

 building of a large boat intended for the local fishing trade. 

 Besides ngaio, the pretty Hoheria was found in fine flower 

 in the Maori reserve. This is a tree which should be found 

 in every suburban garden ; both flowers and foliage are 

 beautiful, and it has a very graceful habit. The common 

 hedge plant at Moeraki is the African Box-Thorn, which 

 makes a pretty shrub when its branches are covered with 

 their fine coral-red berries. 



A seaside place would be of little interest if one could 

 not go at low water and poke among the rock pools. The 

 reefs on the ocean face of Moeraki Headland form an 

 excellent hunting ground for the naturalist, as they run out 

 for a considerable distance, exposing at low water long flat 

 shelves of sea weed -covered rocks full of large and small 

 pools. Such places are a never-failing source of interest. 

 After a storm, when the waves have torn off great masses 

 of tangled weed and sea-wrack and hurled them up with 

 all their living freight on to the sandy beaches above 

 the reefs, the collector can get a harvest of material. But 

 if he comes on the beach some days after a gale he will find 

 how rapidly a heap of seaweed is attacked and removed 

 once it is out of the reach of the waves. If a frond be 

 seized and dragged away so as to open up a heap, myriads 



* Physalis Peruvtana. t Myoporum la turn. 



