258 TUTIRA 



of contractors whose last work had been done on a coastal run. Away 

 from the warmth of the coast this yellow evening primrose is unable to 

 perpetuate his race, and after a season or two dies off. 



Along the grassy margin of the lake in hot weather the native 

 shearers often prefer to live under canvas rather than stay in the per- 

 manent accommodation provided. It was on the vacated site of one of 

 these temporary camping-grounds that Ranunculus parviflorus first 

 appeared. This little buttercup I had known extremely plentiful about 

 the Tangoio pa, whence came the shearers, but it had never appeared 

 on the road ; and as masses of it suddenly took possession of the tent 

 sites, I have no doubt it must have arrived in the old sacks so often used 

 by Maoris for saddle-cloths, sleeping-sheets, and other purposes. 



Wood poa (Pod nemoralis) also first reached the run in sacking ; 

 I found it, at any rate, flourishing amongst old bags on the site of a 

 deserted splitter's camp. 



There yet remain for mention stowaways which have arrived in 

 penny or sixpenny packets of flower and vegetable seeds ; goose-grass 

 (Galium aparine) thus hidden reached Tutira in a packet of spinach 

 seed. Wall mustard (Diplotaxis muralis) secreted itself amongst Vir- 

 ginian stock ; yellow pimpernel (Lysamachia nemorum) smuggled itself 

 on to the station in the company of verbena. A species of silene, of 

 which I only got withered specimens impossible to identify, came up in 

 Harry Young's garden with mignonette seed. 



With the recrudescence in recent years of white clover owing to 

 ploughing and manures, bee-keeping has been again revived on the 

 station. In 1913, opening a box from Rouen, France, I found im- 

 bedded in the artificial wax a single plump sunflower seed. The 

 stowaway was planted, guarded with special care from slugs and snails, 

 and eventually matured into a magnificent ten-foot specimen with a head 

 of great circumference. Though doubtless unable without assistance to 

 have reproduced itself, and therefore, perhaps, not to be properly in- 

 cluded amongst acclimatised aliens, it is yet a good example of the 

 strange manner in which seeds pass from land to land. Its arrival at 

 any rate corroborates what has been said before, that no new phase of 

 station work can be undertaken without the appearance of a correspond- 

 ing flora. 



