268 Transactions.— Botany. 
Mr. John Hay, has raised a large number of young oaks, and distributed 
them liberally throughout New Zealand. In the summer of 1877 I stripped 
it for the first time, and got a large quantity of virgin cork, which I did not 
weigh, the first stripping being of little or no commercial value. In 
February last I again stripped it, and after drying the bark found the pro- 
duct to be 70 Ibs. weight of good marketable cork, fit for pint corks, as I 
am informed by Mr. Dutton, the cork-cutter, who was present at the strip- 
ping, and states it to be worth at least 60s. per ewt. 
It will thus be seen that the trees must be 25 to 27 years old before pro- 
ducing any return, and then every five years may produce 70 Ibs. to 100 lbs. 
weight of marketable cork. The produce improves in quality by each strip- 
ping. On comparing the New Zealand product with the imported bark, it 
is evident that the annual growth of the bark in Auckland is quite equal to 
that of the import. 
I present herewith to the museum a sheet of the cork of last stripping, 
3 feet 4 inches by 1 foot 4 inches, which shows the character and quality of 
the cork, and is, I believe, the first produced in New Zealand. I also pre- 
sent a section of one of the branches, showing the mode of growth of the 
virgin eor 
Art. XXXV.—The Naturalized Plants of the Auckland Provincial District. 
By T. F. Cuezseman, F.L.8., Curator of the Auckland Museum. 
[Read before the Auckland Institute, 30th November, 1882.] 
Tse wonderful rapidity with which plants alien to the New Zealand Flora 
have established themselves in this country, the rate at which they have 
spread through the length and breadth of the land, and the marked effect 
that they have produced and doubtless will continue to produce on the 
indigenous vegetation, are facts so patent that they cannot escape the notice 
of the most incurious person. And it is a remarkable circumstance that 
most of these plants are of European origin. A stranger landing at any 
one of the chief ports in the colony might almost fancy himself to be in a 
corner of the northern hemisphere, if the appearance of the vegetation were 
his only guide. The sturdy and irrepressible plants that occupy the waste 
places and roadsides of a European town meet him on his arrival here; 
the weeds of the pastures and meadows are mostly the same; the cultivated 
fields and gardens are invaded by the same unwelcome and troublesome 
intruders here as there. And when he comes to carry his observations 
further into the country, and makes acquaintance with its true flora, still 
he finds, however far he may extend his travels, that there is no corner, 
