Moxro.— Geographical Botany of Nelson and Marlborough. 163 
over which the flood of colonial enterprise is spreading, were to them 
unknown. Dr. Hooker himself, with the antarctic expedition, visited the 
Bay of Islands for a short time; but unless we are mistaken, the ships did 
not touch at any port in the South Island. 
The characteristic features of the vegetation of the South Island of 
New Zealand may be largely stated thus :—The eastern and central portions 
of the country are covered with grass; the western side with forest. It is 
not unreasonable to conjecture that at a former period, possibly not very 
remote, the whole of the surface of the island was clothed with continuous 
forest. On many of the sheep-runs, now lamentably destitute of growing 
timber, the settlers find an available substitute in logs of sound, fresh wood 
lying plentifully seattered on the hill sides; and in travelling over perfectly 
treeless plains, where nothing woody at present grows loftier than a “ Wild 
Irishman " (Discaria towmatou, Hook. f.), stumps are frequently encoun- 
tered, with their roots spreading out laterally just as they grew when the 
tree was living; and the swamps and hollow places on these plains eontain 
an immense abundance of prostrate logs and large branches, affording a 
supply of firewood sufficient to last for many years. The great agent in the 
destruction of the primitive forest has undoubtedly been fire. Unlike the 
Eucalyptus of Australia, the New Zealand forest tree is at once killed by 
excessive heat. A fire may pass through an Australian forest, clearing up 
the dead fallen timber and scorching and blackening the living; but the 
gum trees (many of them even if burnt to the ground) still retain their 
vitality, and, Pheenix-like, send forth new foliage and branches. I cannot 
eall to my memory a single New Zealand tree that does the same. As the 
New Zealand forest is generally much more dense and humid than that of 
Australia, fires running through it are not so frequent, and occur only in 
the very driest seasons, when the moss which carpets the surface has parted 
with all its moisture, notwithstanding the shade of its leafy canopy. Such, 
however, was the case two years ago, when immense quantities of valuable 
timber in the neighbourhood of Wellington and Banks Peninsula were 
destroyed in this manner. When this happens, the forest is completely 
killed. Melancholy skeletons of dead trees represent what were formerly 
masses of cool foliage. No growth takes place either from the stems or 
roots. But a secondary growth of shrubs arises. Various species of Veronica, 
Aristotelia, Pittosporum, Aralia, Coprosma, Fuchsia, Leptospermum, and 
others, soon form dense copses, and with these are blended, according to 
climate and nature of the soil, varying proportions of ferns and grasses. 
The larger forest trees will also make their appearance occasionally, growing 
from seed—more especially the varieties of the birch of the colonists 
(Fagus), and the totara (Podocarpus totara). But as fires are now the rule, 
