162 Essays. 
are characteristics both of the arboreous and shrubby vegetation. The 
difference is so marked that I retain the most vivid recollection of the 
physiognomy of the Tasmanian mountains and valleys, but a very indifferent 
one of the New Zealand forest, where all is, comparatively speaking, blended 
into one green mass, relieved at the Bay of Islands by the symmetrical 
crown of the Tree-fern, the pale green fountain of foliage of the Dacrydium 
cupressinum and the poplar-like Knightia overtopping all. It is true that 
there is more variety in the latter country than is expressed by the selection 
of a few individuals, and a little reflection recalls a vast number of noble 
and some beautiful botanical objects ; but with the exception of groves of the 
Kahikatea Pine (Podocarpus dacrydioides) on the swampy river banks, the 
Pomaderris and. Leptospermum on the open hill sides, and Dammara on their 
crests, there is little to arrest the botanist’s first glance ; and nothing in the 
massing or grouping of the species of any natural order renders that order 
an important element in the general landscape, or gives individuality to any 
of its parts by flowers and gaiety or by foliage and gloom. The same 
features prevail even so far south as Lord Auckland’s group, where Draco- 
phyllum, Coprosma, Metrosideros, Panax, and a shrubby Veronica unite to 
form an evergreen mantle: and I suspect, from the accounts I have heard 
and read, that they are repeated on the damp cool coasts of Chili, to the 
north of the region of the sombre beech forests which cloth the Fuegian 
Islands.” 
The colonist of the South Island of New PER Y if he happens to visit 
the Provinee of Auckland, and more particularly its northern portions, will 
not fail to recognize, in this beautiful and striking language, a vivid pieture 
of the forest scenery of the Northern Island. But it does not apply to the 
vegetation of Nelson, Canterbury, or Otago. The fact is, that in this 
respect Dr. Hooker has fallen into the same mistake as all other writers 
upon New Zealand until within a very few years. From, say, about the 
year 1830 until 1850 the Bay of Islands and Auckland were considered to 
be New Zealand, and a variety of works were given to the world descriptive 
of this country, founded upon a visit to its northern extremity. Until the 
settlements of Canterbury and Otago were founded, the South Island of 
New Zealand was hardly known at all. It is true that the great navigator 
Cook selected two of its harbours, Queen Charlotte Sound and Dusky Bay, 
as his favourite resting-places; and the celebrated botanists who accompanied 
him, Banks, Solander, and the Forsters, collected their specimens in the 
. neighbourhood of these harbours, and saw and studied its flora there. 
But of the intervening portions of the country they appear to have seen 
hardly Pegs E ai erg and grassy downs of the South Island, now 
dd ApeqiAnia Nepal ot ihe genter ) 
