404 DICOTYLEDONS AND CONIFERS 



the plant is too bushy in habit and hence costs more to strip. It 

 does not seem to spread to any great extent. 



Acacia melanoxylon, R. Br. Blackwood 



This species spreads to some extent by means of its seeds, as 

 well as its suckers, e.g. in Taranaki. 



Acacia longifolia, Willd. 



Recorded by Cheeseman in 1896 as occurring in the North Cape 

 district. 



Acacia armata y R. Br. Kangaroo Acacia 



Mostly grown as a hedge plant, but in some districts has spread 

 and become a nuisance. Consequently it has been included in the 

 Second Schedule of the Noxious Weeds Act 1900, by Special Gazette 

 Notice of 23rd March, 1905. In 1910 H. Carse records it from 

 Mongonui. 



Albizzia lophantha, Benth. Brush Wattle 



First recorded by Kirk in 1869 among plants from the Thames 

 Goldfields. It is naturalised in many localities, especially in the 

 Auckland and Taranaki districts, and is common in many parts of 

 the North Island. In the South it is only a cultivated plant. Urquhart 

 says that it "competes successfully against, and in time destroys, 

 almost the strongest vegetation met with in the open country." (Fl., 

 Aug. to Sept.) 



ROSACES 

 Amygdalus Persica, Linn. Peach ; Nectarine 



Apparently peach trees were first introduced into the Bay of 

 Islands by Marsden in December, 1814. Cruise, writing in 1820, 

 says: "The missionaries have got some peach trees that bear very 

 well." 



The Maoris soon scattered the seed far and wide, so that it early 

 established itself as a wild species, for they shifted their cultivations 

 frequently. The mate of the brig 'Hawes' in 1828 found peaches in 

 the native cultivations near Tauranga. Polack somewhat later writes 

 as follows : 



On a small farm I possess in the Kororarika Bay, two peach trees had 

 been planted on the place by an early missionary. These had been allowed 

 to grow wild for many years, but yet produced, in 1839, thousands of fruit, 

 almost unequalled in size and flavour. This farm contained at one period 

 nearly one hundred small trees, growing spontaneously from seed carelessly 

 strewed about without having been planted. 



He also refers to nectarines as in European gardens at the same 

 period. 



