FERN-CRUSHING 173 



prevalence of scorched manuka produced from a distance a grey, sere 

 hue. The tops, peaks, and ridge-caps, clothed in the same growth, 

 remained green. The autumn of 1907 had been wet and cold, the admix- 

 ture of growing manuka amongst the fern had furthermore acted as a 

 damper. The accumulated growths of bracken were lesser in bulk, they 

 were no longer capable of producing the raging, roaring conflagrations 

 of early days. 



On the blackened portions of the paddock conditions likewise had 

 altered. Seedlings germinated in millions on the dark ground ; there 

 was the usual reappearance of Cape-weed, Mouse-ear chickweed, Houtawai, 

 Groundsel (Senecio canadensis), and Pelargonium australe. There was 

 the customary waning recrudescence of the "Scotsman" (Cnicus 

 lanceolatus), a plant which, whatever its name might seem to infer, does 

 not thrive, and eventually ceases to germinate on hungry soils. The 

 three heaths named had extended their range, especially Leucopogon 

 Frazeri. Pomaderris phylicse folia had settled in small dense colonies on 

 suitable localities. Besides this vast general increase in seedlings, there 

 was also a vast increase in the numbers of the plants themselves that 

 had survived the fire. In many parts the last crop of bracken- 

 growth had not been dense enough to smother the established roots of 

 Cape- weed and Houtawai (Accena australis), Leucopogon Frazeri, and 

 other plants. Amongst the manuka, by some miracle, danthonia and 

 micrcelena still survived, each etiolated plant still throwing forth a 

 few meagre green blades. Though always apparently on the verge of 

 extinction, these species just managed to exist. Their growth was 

 sparse and meagre ; to be seen they had to be searched for. Nor, as 

 we shall see afterwards, did these invaluable species invaluable at this 

 period content themselves with passivity. 



Stock debarred by reason of manuka-growth from the crests and 

 crowns of the paddock had developed on the upper slopes new series 

 of traffic lines, parallel below parallel. Along these, native grasses now 

 also lodged precariously, inconspicuously, breathlessly. 



The increase in the number of other plants and seedlings was, 

 however, as nothing compared to the increase of manuka. The heights 

 everywhere were now crowned and crested with its dense thickets and 

 winding shrubberies. Seedlings appeared in millions of millions of 

 millions. After the heat of a fire which had rather scalded and withered 

 than burnt the shrub, its berries opened fully and shook forth their 



