322 



1 will now proceed to offer a few remarks upon the distribution, in its 

 leading characteristics, of the flora and fauna of these islands, which, however, 

 I must do with great briefness, in order not to weary you. But first, let me 

 repeat a remark made in my former lecture, as to the peculiar physical 

 character of the surface of these islands, namely, that they present all the 

 appearance of rugged mountain chains, which originally formed part of an 

 immensely larger area, the greater part of the lower and more level tracts of 

 which have since been submerged. Looked at broadly, in connection with the 

 Flora, and exclusive of alpine and sub-alpine tracts, we may treat the surface 

 of the Islands generally as divisible into bush or forest land, fern land, grass 

 land, and swamp land. I apply the words " swamp land," in the local sense of 

 the term, to tracts usually found near the coasts, and covered with a rich 

 growth of Phormium tenax, and other plants requiring a considerable depth of 

 vegetable soil and much moisture, and by no means in the sense in which the 

 same words would be used in England. Our swampy lands are easily drained, 

 and become very fertile under cultivation, and then yield, in this mild climate, 

 immense and continuous crops of grass. Such tracts generally indicate the site 

 of former forest growth, for, in every instance that I am aware of, at a 

 moderate depth below the surface, large quantities of timber are found. The 

 area occupied by land of this class is not extensive, but it possesses considerable 

 importance in an economical point of view, not merely on account of the 

 fertility of the land itself, but also as yielding a large supply of one of the most 

 valuable fibre plants in the world. 



The grass lands occur chiefly, if not exclusively, on the eastern sides of 

 both islands, and now afford pasture to millions of sheep and to great numbers 

 of cattle and horses, thus, in their mere natural condition, adding largely to the 

 wealth of the colony. 



Whether these pasture lands were ever covered with forest I very much 

 doubt, although many great naturalists are of opinion, that every part of the 

 surface of the habitable earth, in all climates and regions, was covered with 

 forest growth before it first became the home of man. ISTor is enquiry into 

 this question material to the subject under consideration, for it is clear that 

 little, if anything, had been done before these Islands became the abode of 

 civilized man to alter or modify the character or distribution of its vegeta- 

 tion. I have never travelled over the pastoral tracts of the North Island, and 

 am therefore unable to point out what general differences exist (if any do exist) 

 between the grasses there, and those which cover the pastoral lands of the 

 Middle Island. The latter until used as sheep and cactle runs, consisted chiefly 

 of tussock grasses, growing with more or less luxuriance according to the nature 

 of the soil, but presenting only slight differences in character, in their alti- 

 tudinal range. 



When these Islands were first colonized by us, very large tracts were covered 

 with Fern, chiefly " Pteris aquilina." I have little doubt that the greater part of 

 such lands had originally been occupied by forest, destroyed by fire after the occu- 

 pation of the country by the present native inhabitants. The soil occupied by 

 this growth is usually friable and easily worked, and wherever the fern grew 

 luxuriantly, has turned out valuable for agricultural purposes. The " Bush " 

 or Forest may be roughly divided into three classes, namely, 1st, That which 

 occupies the lower parts of our larger valleys and other low lying tracts near 

 the sea coast, — 2nd, That which occupies the upper or higher parts of our 

 valleys, and hills of modei'ate elevation, within a few miles from the coast line, — 

 and 3rd, That which occupies the greater mass of the mountain districts on the 

 western sides of both islands, up to sub-alpine elevations. 



The first class comprises a varied growth, the timber trees belonging, for 

 the most part to certain peculiar genera of Coniferse, whilst the undergrowth 



