III.—BOTAN Y. 
Art. XLVII.—On the Botany of the Pirongia Mountain. 
By T. F Cuerseman, F.L.S. 
[Read before the Auckland Institute, 80th June, 1879.] 
Reswents and travellers in the Waikato and Waipa districts are all well 
acquainted with the pieturesque Pirongia Mountain, As Hochstetter well 
remarks :—“ This ancient dilapidated voleano" * * * ‘with its many 
peaks and ravines” gives to the Waipa country its characteristic scenery. 
** The eye never tires of gazing at it, as it always assumes new forms from 
each new point of view.” 
None of our early naturalists appear to have investigated the flora of 
the mountain. This is the more singular, as it is easily ascended and is 
in close proximity to the Waipa river,—before the Maori war, & recognized 
highway into the interior of the country. Dr. Dieffenbach certainly passed 
over a portion of the mountain in 1841, but it does not appear that he 
made any collections on the oecasion. Dr. Hochstetter, when journeying 
up the Waipa Valley, in 1859, turned out of his way to climb the much 
lower and—in every respect—less interesting hill Kakepuku, but made no 
attempt to ascend Pirongia. Since then the Maori difficulty practically 
closed the mountain to Europeans until quite recent times. The following 
remarks are based upon notes made during two ascents, in January 1877 
and January 1879, and must be understood as referring to the eastern and 
central parts of the mountain only, as on both occasions I failed to pene- 
trate to the western side (partly through want of time and the impracti- 
cable nature of the vegetation to be passed through after the first summit 
is reached ; and, on the last ascent, partly through opposition raised by the 
Maoris. At some future time, I hope to examine the remainder of the 
mountain, and possibly to give a sketch of its entire flora,—to a knowledge 
of which the present paper is only a slight contribution. 
Pirongia is an extinct trachyte cone, standing on the west side of the 
Waipa river, almost direetly opposite the township of Alexandra. Its 
highest peaks attain an altitude of 2830 feet, but the range of which it is 
the culminating point maintains for some distance both to the north and 
south an average height of over 1000 feet. A continuation of the ridge 
