N 
water 
f res: ec 
142 | The Plant Formations. 
quite straight, unbranched for three-fourths their length or more, and looking 
like the masts of sailing-ships. The head of „branches and foliage is most 
scanty, but in a northern or central forest bears a surprising number of huge 
clumps of Aszelia Solandri (Plate XXVI, Fig. 34). Between pure kahikatea forest £ 
and the adjacent rain-forest, if such be present, are various intermediate com- 
binations, and it is rather the tall trees of the latter which are wanting than 
the plants of the undergrowth, since although pools of water lie everywhere, 
there is always more or less moderately dry ground. Moreover fallen logs 
cumber the ground and these provide a station for the non-swamp tolerating 
species as also a place where seeds can germinate. In short, the distribution 
and combinations of species within the forest is regulated by the water-content 
of the soil. Below is given a brief account of the association at different points 
in proceeding from N. to S 
Near Northern Wairoa River, North Auckland district. 
immense numbers 
Su Lo: Sal 
is the same as that described above 
