Kirx.—On the Lake District of the North Island. 339 
The open plains present but few plants of interest; patches of Raoulia 
hectori and Muhlenbeckia axillaris are found in one or two localities south of 
Oruanui and attain here their northern limit. Carex inversa occurs sparingly 
in dry sandy places, the culms being extremely slender. Isolepis aucklandicus 
and Lomaria alpina are found sparingly in moist, sheltered spots. Draco- 
phyllum subulatum is common on plains throughout the district. 
Waikato River. 
Crossing the Waikato, near the northern extremity of Lake Taupo, much 
of the low scrub at a short distance from the river banks is seen to be stunted 
and depauperated ; the cotton grass (Celmisia longifolia) forming large masses 
on the spots that appear too barren to allow the growth of Poa levis. By 
the road side at Waipihi, and in other places on the margin of the lake, 
attention is at once arrested by the heavy growth of littoral plants, Chenopo- 
dium ambiguum and Convolvolus soldanella. The pohutukawa also is found 
on the Island of Motutaiko, and I believe in several places on the shores of 
the lake, but is nowhere so abundant or of such large dimensions as at Lake 
Tarawera. 
OPEPE. 
About Opepe most of the hills are capped with patches of forest in which 
the totara, miro, matai and kahikatea are the most common trees. Hleocarpus 
hookerianus is also abundant, and attains a large size. Griselinia lucida is 
also common, and in this locality affords support to the larve of Hepialus 
virescens, the so-called vegetable caterpillar, which offers a nidus for the 
curious fungus, Cordiceps robertsii. Many rare ferns, as Lomaria patersonii, 
Todea superba, Lomaria alpina, L. vulcanica, Dicksonia antarctica, and 
D. lanata are found in great abundance. Panax sinclairi, Gentiana montana, 
and Coriaria thymifolia, the ground tute of Otago, attain here their northern 
limits. The small indigenous form of Leontodon taraxacum and Viola filicaulis 
are also found in abundance. 
The exceptional position of the forest is doubtless the result of denudation. 
The hills have been formed by successive pumiceous deposits, the more 
recent of which have been washed from the higher lands, so that the older 
submarine deposits, which are more or less decomposed, have been laid bare to 
a greater or lesser extent, and are now covered with a vegetation not only of 
luxuriant growth but comparatively rich in the number of species which it 
contains. 
The low grounds are intersected by deep gullies and ravines, produced by 
sub-aerial denudation, which are often of great depth, and in some cases filled 
‘with a dense vegetation presenting but little variety. An inconspicuous 
Haloragis, new to science, occurs profusely in these situations. 
