PEDESTRIANS 



301 



Tangoio kainga ; then in a single season three separate patches appeared 

 on the remaining length of road, while a fourth established itself on the 

 run : it had moved from Hastings to Tutira in four years. Established 

 as a huge patch near the wool-shed, it made during several seasons a half- 

 hearted attempt to colonise areas of pumiceous land then under the 

 plough ; for a time scattered plants appeared here and there, but with- 

 out the instant multiplication of a species thoroughly suited to its 

 environment. 



Strawberry clover (Trifolium fragiferum) has reached us also from 

 the south I believe from the Taradale district. A couple of thick mats, 

 one close to Tangoio and the other a mile or so nearer, established them- 

 selves on sandy spots alongside the road. It then skipped the marls and 

 pumiceous portions of the road till the sandy silt it loves was again 

 available near the Twenty Acre Paddock and on the lake margin near 

 the homestead. Many years later it was pur- 

 posely sown, but has done nothing to justify 

 itself as a fodder-plant. 



Although fennel (Fceniculum vulgare) was 

 indubitably introduced at a very early date on 

 the Heru-o-Tureia block, it nevertheless merits 

 mention as a road weed. In the 'eighties, and 

 probably much earlier, it grew thickly in 

 southern Hawke's Bay on the alluvial banks of 

 certain rivers, on the waste lands of Maori 

 villages, along railway embankments and other 

 such places. There existed also in these days 

 scattered plants between Napier and Petane 

 and between Petane and Tangoio. They grew 

 wretchedly on the clay blinding of the roads 

 traversing sand and shingle ; the plant dwindled 

 in stature, too, on the poor hills along the coastal bridle-track. The 

 nearest specimen to Tutira had early managed to establish itself thirty 

 yards below the abrupt drop of one in three, down which the station 

 pack-team in wet weather used to skid. There for years has that solitary 

 plant, marooned in a green sea of grass, watched other passengers 

 press forward to the goal of their high calling ; there, indeed, it remains 

 to this day. The actual establishment of fennel on Tutira proper only 

 occurred in 1906 ; the plant, notwithstanding its early efforts to win an 



Fennel. 



