304 TUTIRA 



stoppage it may have been, with its consequent turf trampling and 

 manuring, that was responsible for the arrival of this delicate refined 

 little plant. Some years later I found a specimen on Tutira near the 

 south end of the lake ; now, though always a rare 

 plant, it has passed the homestead still travelling 

 north. 



Few of my pedestrians have had a longer 

 tramp than Pennyroyal (Mentha pulegium). About 

 '94 I first met the plant on the alluvial flats 

 of Poverty Bay ; then it appeared at Tinoroto, 

 and lastly Wairoa. From Wairoa it came down 

 to Mohaka, then, following the inland road behind 

 Waikari, reached Putorino, and later again Tutira, 

 the first-seen plant on the run appearing close to 

 the bridge over the Tutira stream. Pennyroyal, 

 doubtless, is of missionary origin, and might have almost equally well 

 been included in " Children of the Church " group. 



Bathurst burr (Xanthium spinosum) I suspect to have had its local 

 origin in the north. I have found it, at any rate, growing more freely 

 in Poverty Bay than elsewhere. Probably, therefore, the crop which at 

 one time densely covered the Coastal Hill had been carried southwards 

 from Poverty Bay by travelling stock, the barbed seed entangled in the 

 tails of cattle and in the manes of horses, I have seen a feeding horse 

 touching a burr plant in an instant get his forelock covered with seed, 

 and in sheep's wool. On this great camping -ground for a season or 

 two Bathurst burr grew with enormous luxuriance. As, however, it 

 travelled inland, and towards greater cold and wet, the plant seemed 

 to lose its vitality. It grew sparsely on one or two disused gardens 

 in the Tangoio kainga. A single specimen appeared on the roadside 

 between Tangoio and Tutira ; only on two occasions has it germinated 

 on the station, each time appearing on dug soils facing the sun. 



Burdock (Arctium lappa) I first met in the middle 'nineties eighty 

 or ninety miles from Tutira. It is one of several species which I think 

 have of late years come from great distances, whose sudden appearance 

 is attributable to motor-car traffic. Like the passengers themselves, 

 seeds are carried by these swift machines greater distances in shorter 

 periods of time. The foremost pioneer on the road appeared midway 

 betwixt Tangoio and Tutira. In spite of my desire, however, to be 



