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CHAPTER XIX. 



FERN-CRUSHING. 



To attempt the portrayal of the successive processes by which, over the 

 whole run, its lighter lands have been trodden and trampled into some 

 sort of utility, would be to work on too large a canvas. A multiplicity 

 of details, unavoidable even in the annals of a single paddock, related 

 of many would confuse and mystify. One will suffice : the enclosure 

 called the " Rocky Staircase " is in soil typical of every block on central 



Successive growths on Rocky Staircase. 



i. Fern and tutu (black). 2. Fern and native grasses (x). 3. Fern, native grasses, and manuka. 

 4. Fern, manuka, and native grass (x). 5. Fern and native grass. 



Tutira. It will serve to show the struggle between bracken, manuka, 

 and danthonia, and to demonstrate the discomfiture of alien fodder 

 plants, the ultimate triumph of native species. 



Perhaps the chapter may possess another interest. During its 

 perusal no great stretch of fancy will be required to note in our 

 little world of plants a process not altogether unlike that now taking 



