246 PLANTS OF NEW ZEALAND 



This is another handsome tree of the same order as the 

 whau. It is common everywhere throughout the islands at 

 altitudes from sea-level up to 2,000 ft. In bush clearings, it is 

 one of the first plants to come up, and would, on this account, 

 be termed by the Americans a " fireweed." It goes by 

 different names in different districts. In Otago, it is the New 

 Zealand Currant, or Moko-mok'. In Canterbury, it is called 

 the Wine-berry. In the North Island, it is the Mako-mako. 

 Its graceful plumes of rosy flowers make it one of the most 

 attractive objects of the bush in Spring. The red-brown 

 under-surfaces of its leaves flash into view with every breath 

 of wind, and the memory of their beauty is one of the pleasantest 

 recollections of the lover of the New Zealand bush. The genus 

 also occurs in South America and Australia. Our species, 

 therefore, perhaps indicate an American connection at some 

 remote period. The wood is white, and has been used for 

 conversion into charcoal for the manufacture of gunpowder. 



Aristotelia fruticosa (The Shrubby Aristotelia). 



A much-branched shrub, 3 ft. -6 ft. high. Mowers solitary, or in small cymes 

 or racemes. Leaves linear, lanceolate to elliptic, oblong, entire, crenate or 

 serrate. Fl. Oct. -Nov. Mountains, both islands. 



A sub-alpine plant of the most variable habit, and extreme 

 mutability of leaf form. These changes of form may be due 

 to the extreme sensitiveness of the plant to alteration of 

 environment, or it may possibly be due to the fact that the 

 plant is undergoing mutation (v. Veronica, p. 370). At any 

 rate, few of our variable species afford more promising material 

 for experiment. Like so many other New Zealand plants, in 

 one of its stages it resembles a twisted Coprosma (v. Plagian- 

 thus betulinus). The leaves of the seedlings are sometimes 

 similar to those of A. racemosa. The leaf form of the last- 

 mentioned species, according to Dr. Cockayne, may, therefore, 

 possibly be regarded as typical of the " common ancestral 

 stock." 



