LEGUMINOS^: 393 



In 1901 W. W. Smith stated that "the larvae of several species 

 of Elater have destroyed enormous areas of gorse fences in New 

 Zealand during the last ten years by consuming the roots of the plants." 



Drummond (Jan. 1916) records that gorse is decreasing in the 

 Upper Waitemata. He later states that on Gouland Downs, south 

 of Collingwood, an early settler sowed four sacks of gorse seeds. It 

 has not thriven, the soil being perhaps too moist and swampy, and 

 only a few stunted plants are now to be seen. 



In a letter in Nature of 26th September, 1918 (p. 65), it is stated 

 that gorse seed, buried for 25 years, has sprung up freely on land 

 in Cumberland which was cleared of gorse and heather in 1893. For 

 the preceding ten years or more, the land was in permanent pasture, 

 but was ploughed and recultivated in 1918. I had the same experience 

 in the neighbourhood of Dunedin. A gorse hedge was rooted out 

 in 1876, and the ground has since been in continuous cultivation as 

 a garden. Whenever extra deep digging was done, as late as 1908, 

 gorse seedlings used to appear occasionally. 



As early as 1859 gorse and broom began to give trouble to farmers 

 and others, and the Provincial Legislatures of Taranaki and Nelson 

 passed restrictive ordinances, compelling private individuals to keep 

 their hedges pruned, to stop planting new hedges, and fining them 

 for any plants growing on the public roads. 



Cytisus scoparius, Link. Broom 



No doubt an early introduction, but first recorded specifically by 

 Armstrong in 1 87 1 from Canterbury. It is now widely spread through- 

 out the country, and in some districts covers wide areas of land to 

 the exclusion of everything else. It also forms along with gorse 

 immense shelter for rabbits. (Fl., Oct. to Jan., but sporadically 

 throughout the year.) 



In the Act of 1900, it is declared to be a noxious weed in the 

 Second Schedule. 



The flowers are visited, for pollen only, by Apis mellifica, Bombus 

 terrestris, B. hortorum and B. lapidarius. 



This species, like the last, exhibits numerous variations from type, 

 and these appear to be more or less hereditary in character. 



Cytisus capensis 

 Recorded from Canterbury in 1871 by Armstrong. 



Cytisus albus, Link. White Broom 



First recorded from Ashburton (as C. albidus), where it was 

 common as undergrowth to the belts of trees skirting the railway 



