Kirk. — On the Lake District of the North Island. 333 



destroyed patches of it two or three feet in diameter. The temperature 

 endured by the roots must have been over 100° Fahr. In one spot the ground 

 gave way under my feet, when a steam jet immediately broke through and 

 destroyed the fern all round. My natives did not approve of fern-collecting 

 in such situations, and for the most part contented themselves with looking 

 on, occasionally giving a warning cry of danger as an apology for their 

 laziness. The steamy atmosphere in which the plant grows in this habitat 

 rendered the specimens so extremely delicate that many of them shrivelled 

 during the short period occupied in carrying them to our camp. Psilotum 

 triquetrum^ in a similar condition as regards delicacy of texture, was collected 

 in several spots in the glen. Microtis porrifolia and Orthoceras solandri were 

 common amongst the stunted manuka in open places. 



EOTOKIWI. 



At Rotokiwi a curious instance of the effects of the moist, heated atmos- 

 phere on plant-growth was observed. A specimen of Leptospermum ericoides, 

 twenty feet high, overhung a boiling spring on the side of the terrace in suck 

 a manner that the branches were exposed to the heated steam without being 

 scalded. The tips of the branches had been punctured by a small insect, but 

 instead of giving off from each gall a few stunted shoots with aggregated 

 leaves almost without vitality, as is usually the case under such circumstances, 

 a vigorous growth of long slender branchlets had been produced, so that the 

 affected branches had been transformed into handsome green plumes, and had 

 apparently overcome the injury instead of succumbing. 



At Otukapurangi, the terraces of which impressed me with a sense of 

 their stately magnificence far more than those of Te Tarata, the whole of the 

 adjacent vegetation had been recently burned, so that the entire fountain was 

 naked and bare. One or two tufts of Nephrodium unitum were growing on 

 the lower terraces, but no other plants worthy of notice were observed. 



The New Zealand form of Lastrea thelypteris occurs in the swamp on the 

 south margin of the lake, and in the lake itself Eleocharis sphacelate^ Scirpus 

 lacustris, and Cladium articulatum, but all appear more or less scalded, as if 

 occasionally affected by a sudden increase in the temperature of the water. 



Amongst floating Conferva, on the west side of the lake, I discovered a 

 pretty bladder-wort, new to science, in general appearance it resembles 

 Utricularia intermedia, Hayne, but has the bladders attached to the leaves; 

 unfortunately it was long past flowering, and from its general appearance I 

 am inclined to believe that it also resembles U. intermedia in producing 

 flowers but rarely. 



The restriction of Nephrodium unitum to the vicinity of the hot springs 

 and the warm water swamp between the two lakes, with the limitation of 



