Kirx.—On the Lake District of the North Island. - 331 
escapes from the mission gardens. Amongst dilapidated buildings in the 
native settlement of Hereapauki the European ivy is flourishing with a degree 
of luxuriance I have not seen elsewhere in the colony. 
TARAWERA. 
` Lake Tarawera is of irregular shape, its greatest diameter being, from east 
to west, about seven miles ; it receives the discharge of Rotokakahi, Roto- 
mahana, and three smaller lakes ; its outlet being by the Tarawera River, 
which leaves the lake at its eastern extremity and falls into the sea at Matata. 
It is more or less margined by cliffs often clothed with pohutukawa, especially 
at the southern arm Te Arikiki, which forms the flank of the Tarawera 
mountain. In this arm the pohutukawa. is abundant, and attains a develop- 
ment only inferior to that which it exhibits in sheltered bays in the northern 
parts of the province. I was informed by Captain Gilbert Mair that it 
occurred along the course of the Tarawera River to Matata. In the same bay, 
at the mouth of the warm river, the Kaiwaka, are hot springs, about which 
Chenopodium ambiguum occurs, having a strong tendency to the semi-erect 
habit of the- Ohinemutu plant. A flat-leaved state of Potamogeton pectinatus - 
is floated down the Kaiwaka from the warm lake, but I was unable to 
discover it in situ. The angi-angi (Coprosma baueriana) occurs in the vicinity 
of deserted native settlements, but evidently planted. Ophioglossum grami- 
neum is found on rocky ledges on the cliffs under Tarawera mountain ; its 
bright yellow spikes, often washed by the waves, were conspicuous at a 
considerable distanċe. Masses of submerged Myriophyllum and Isolepis were 
abundant in the clear water, while the cliffs, clothed with masses of Astelia 
trinervia and the littoral A. cunninghamii, overshadowed by pohutukawa of 
dimensions that would have gladdened the eyes of a shipbuilder, and laden 
with epiphytic ferns and shrubs—Griselinia lucida, Pittosporum cornifolium, 
and Astelia solandri—presented near the centre of the island a fac-simile of 
scenes only to be found elsewhere in the northern part of the province ; but 
with this marked difference, the aquatic plants were fluviatile, not marine. 
Ascending the warm river, floating masses of Potamogeton pectinatus were 
constantly met, and large submerged tufts of Isolepis setosus. Lemna minor, 
with larger fronds than usual, formed small floating patches in quiet places. 
A dense growth of sedges occupied the swamp on either side, amongst which 
the tropical Vephrodium unitum grows in vast abundance, covering acres with 
its dull green fronds which are sometimes five feet high and seven inches 
across, but in this state are usually barren. It is easily picked from the canoe 
when ascending the rapids, which mark the upper part of the stream. Visewm 
salicornioides and Loranthus micranthus are not unfrequent on the tea-tree in 
the swamp, which contains few plants worthy of special notice. 
