888 Transactions.— Botany. 
descend very much nearer the sea-level, so that-some of those that can be 
found only at elevations of 1,800 or 2,000 feet on the Thames side are 
found as low down as 500 feet from the sea-level near Tairua sawmills. 
The country round the sawmills is a painful scene of widespread desola- 
tion ; as the large timber is not only cleared away, but the undergrowth is 
annually burnt. There is, however, one exception along the course of the 
Pepe Creek, and here I found Quintinia serrata, Panax discolor, Panaw sim- 
plex, Phyllocladus glauca, and Lowsoma cunninghamii, at an elevation of not 
more than 500 feet. Far greater havoc is made of the forests on the 
Tairua side than on the Thames, which may be partly owing to the nature 
of the soil; but it is, however, certain that for sixteen miles, along the 
Tairua River from the sawmills, the desolate appearance of the country is 
very distressing. This desolation will be much increased when the kauri 
forests, near the Tairua diggings, are cut down. The traveller will then be 
able to look from Pakirarahi over all the country to the east coast, which 
will then be the most ruined and disfigured part of New Zealand. Faciunt 
solitudinem et cultum appellant, 
In addition to the exploration of the main range I have paid a good deal 
of attention to orchids; and as these plants have on the whole very short 
seasons, it may not be unprofitable to put in a connected form the months 
in which they bloom in the Thames district. 
This is the more easy, as the different species appear from month to 
month throughout the year with such regularity as to form a kind of floral 
calendar by their successive appearance in flower. 
The botanical year may be said to commence in June, when Acianthus 
sinclairii comes into flower. It first appears on the hill-sides in the bush 
near tufts of Astelia, where there is rich mould. A week later Pterostylis 
trullifolia is in full flower in rocky places on patches of moss. This is a 
common plant in damp places on the sides of fern hills. 
During the last week in June Corysanthes rivularis begins to appear in 
damp places near the foot of forest hills, and later, along the banks of 
mountain streams. All these orchids continue through the month of 
July. , 
In August Corysanthes macrantha, C. oblonga and C. triloba can be found 
in flower. They affect high ground on the borders of heavy bush-land and 
grow best in rich black mould. Their purple flowers are warnings that the 
‘ rarest orchids are about to appear and may disappear also in the same 
month of September. The rare orchids are Cyrtostylis oblonga, Pterostylis 
puberula and Pterostylis squamata. They all grow on low hills covered 
with fern (Pteris aquilina) and tea-tree (Leptospermum scoparium), but are 
not equally abundant. 
