Apams.—On the Botany of Te Aroha Mountain. . 276 
Arr. XXXII.—On the Botany of Te Aroha Mountain. By J. Avams, B.A. 
[Read before the Auckland Institute, 29th September, 1884.] 
Tz Aroma Mountain stands at the head of the Thames Valley on the right 
bank of the Waihou River. Its height is 3,176 fect, and thus it is the 
highest mountain north of the Lower Waikato River. 
At a distance it appears to be a continuation of the Coromandel Range ; 
but a nearer examination shows that it is an isolated mountain, and, from a 
botanical point of view, more closely allied to Karioi and Pirongio on the 
west side of the Waikato Plains than to the high mountains of the Thames 
District. 
The mountain is somewhat of a pyramidal shape. The side of the base 
facing the river runs north-west and south-east. On this side, towards its 
northern end, there are a number of hot springs and mineral springs, with 
a considerable formation of stalagmite, which is constantly precipitated 
from the waters of the springs. 
The town of Te Aroha is built close to these springs. At the southern 
end of the same base line at a distance of three miles is situated the township 
of Wairongomai, so called from the stream that flows from the north-east 
along another side of this irregular pyramid. 
The mountain rises on all sides in a very steep incline; but forms a 
series of broad plateaux from the base to the summit. At each succeeding 
plateau in the ascent, a change takes place in the vegetation. The travel- 
ler’s joy (Clematis indivisa), tataka (Melicope ternata), titoki (Alectryon excelsum), 
kowhai (Sophora tetraptera), tea-tree (Leptospermum scoparium), ramarama 
(Myrtus bullata), puketea (Laurelia mova-zealandie), mangeao (Litsea cali- 
caris) which are abundant near the base of the mountain, are gradually 
replaced, at higher elevations, by the different species of maire (Olea cunning- 
hamii, O. lanceolata, O. montana), by totara (Podocarpus totara), rimu (Daery- 
dium cupressinum), kauri (Agathis australis). These again are replaced at 
higher elevations by neinei (Dracophyllum latifoliwn), pahautea (Libocedrus 
bidwillii), tanekaha (Phyllocladus alpina). There aré some plants, such as’ m 
kotukutuku (Fuchsia excorticata), kohekohe (Dysoxylum spectabile), and taua 
( Bulschmudia taua), that are abundant from the base almost to the summit. 
Indeed Fuchsia excorticata appears to grow as well on the summit of the 
mountain as on the banks of the Wairongomai Creek. 
A very remarkable change takes place in the vegetation about 700 feet 
from the top of the mountain. 
The rimu, Ixerba, Quintinia, and tawhero are suddenly exchanged for 
groves of neinei from fifteen to twenty feet high, and straggling trees of 
tanekaha (Phyllocladus alpina) and of pahautea (Libocedrus bidwillii). 
