FOREST AND THEE FERNS 



43 



After walking along the beach for some distance, I 

 climbed the steep cliff that walled in that part of the 

 island, and found myself in a genuine New Zealand 

 forest, where every tree, shrub, and fern was new to 



me. The branches of most of the trees were so bent 

 and twisted that the forest was almost an impenetrable 

 thicket. Here, in their native wilds, I saw for the first 

 time the graceful tree-ferns ; and I sat down on a pros- 

 trate trunk to admire them. One can form no just 



