CHAP. II.] QUEEN CHARLOTTE'S SOUND. 27 



Higher up, the sides of the hills are clothed with 

 trees, of which the rimu, 1 totara, 2 and mai 3 (all 

 belonging to the pine tribe) are the most common, 

 and attain the greatest thickness. Intermixed with 

 these are the tawai 4 and hinau. 5 On the lower 

 grounds these trees are almost impenetrably inter- 

 woven by liands (smilax), which attain great length, 

 and the berries of which form the favourite food of 

 the beautiful New Zealand pigeon, 6 the plumage of 

 which displays all the colours of the rainbow. High 

 tree-ferns, 7 with the cabbage-palm, 8 strike the eye 

 as the most beautiful forms of New Zealand vegeta- 

 tion. 



The number of small ferns is quite incredible, and 

 a great many species may be collected at all times 

 in a state of fructification. 



Here and there steins of trees are overturned, 

 either by the winds or from age ; and although 

 long preserving their outward shape, they are soon 

 thoroughly rotten, from the abundance of moisture. 



At the summit of the hills we find but little 

 wood ; and the manuka 9 and kahikatoa, 10 the esculent 

 fern 11 and euphorbium, 12 and the epacris parviflora, 

 form the chief part of the vegetation. , The kahi- 



1 Dacrydium cupressinum. 



2 Podocarpus totara. 3 Dacrydium mai. 



4 Leiospermum racemosum. 3 Elaeocarpus hinau. 



6 Columba spadicea. 



7 Cyathea medullaris and dealbata. 8 Areca sapida. 



9 Leptosperraum scoparium. Leptospermum ericoides. 



11 Pteris esculenta. 2 Euphorbium glaucum. 



