Kirk. — On the Lake District of the North Island. 331 



escapes from the mission gardens. Amongst dilapidated buildings in the 

 native settlement of Hereapanki the European ivy is flourishing with a degree 

 of luxuriance I have not seen elsewhere in the colony. 



Taeawera. 



Lake Tarawera is of irregular shape, its greatest diameter being, from east 

 to west, about seven miles ', it receives the discharge of E-otokakahi, Roto- 

 mahana, and three smaller lakes ; its outlet being by the Tarawera Kiver, 

 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 tlie same bay, 

 at the mouth of the warm river, the Kaiwaka, are hot springs, about which 

 Chenopodium amhiguum 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 haueriana) 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 distance. 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 Nephrodium 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. Viscum 

 salicornioides and Loranthus micranthus are not unfrequent on the tea-tree in 

 the swamp, which contains few plants worthy of special notice. 



