SKETCH OF 
THE: BOTANY: OF OTAGO, 
By JOHN BUCHANAN, 
OF THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF NEW ZEALAND. 
[Written for the New Zealand Exhibition, 1865.] 
Tue Province of Otago possesses an equable climate, and to this cause may 
. be ascribed its evergreen flora. The mountain ranges, also, by influencing 
the humidity of the climate, cause a great variety in the flora by forming 
humid and arid districts. 
The general facies of the vegetation of the province, on its eastern water- 
shed, is grassy, the greater area being open grass land, with comparatively 
smaller areas of bush along the coast line and in the gullies of the mountain 
ranges; whereas, on the western watershed the whole country from the sea 
to an altitude of 3,000 feet, on the mountains, is covered with bush. - 
It is evident that at no distant time the greater part of the province was 
covered with forest. On many of the grassy ridges may still be found the 
remains of large trees, and over large areas the surface is dotted with the 
little hillocks and corresponding hollows produced by the upturned roots of 
trees which have been blown over, generally in the line of prevailing winds, 
. after their destruction by fire, and no doubt there have been many denuda- 
tions and reproductions of bush. 
At the beginning of the settlement large tracts of the province were 
being reclothed with bush, but as the country was opened for cattle and 
sheep runs, this new growth was again burnt off, and a luxuriant growth of 
native grasses appeared without seed being sown. 
In 1852, much of what is now the finest grass country on the Clutha, 
Tuapeka, Waitahuna, Pomahaka, and Wyndham districts was covered by an 
impenetrable growth of shrubs and young trees. 
The further extension of bush, therefore, has been arrested by settlement; . 
and the still existing portion will gradually disappear in the process of clear- 
ing the land for cultivation, and for use as fuel, building, and fencing. 
