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is usually very luxuriant and dense, move particularly in tbe deep alluvial 

 deposits at the lower parts of the valleys, where we also find the Laurelia 

 Novae Zelandise and other trees affecting rich moist soils. The small remnant 

 of forest still seen at the entrance of the Hutt valley affords us an example of 

 this class of bush land, and although it is fast being destroyed, it even now 

 gives us an excellent idea of its original variety and density of growth. We 

 still find there living specimens of most of the forest trees, covered with 

 remarkable epiphytes, whilst amongst the undergi'owth. the Tree Fern, the 

 Nikau Palm, the Cordyline, and the Freycinetia, and a variety of shrubs 

 delighting in shade and moisture, are closely interlaced with the Supple-jack, 

 the Clematis, and other creeping plants. The second class also comprises a 

 varied growth, but here we find, in addition to forms of Coniferse occurring in 

 the lower grounds, many species of Metrosideros, Elaeocarp\is and other timber 

 trees, whilst the undergrowth is also extremely dense and impenetrable, more 

 particularly in the innumerable gullies which have been furrowed in 

 every direction out of the hill sides. Those, however, who can be tempted to 

 explore these dense gullies, are amply repaid for their toil by the extreme 

 beauty and variety of the ferns and mosses with which the ground is carpeted, 

 and the trunks of the trees are covered, whilst the appearance of many of the 

 more gigantic forest trees, is rendered singularly beautiful, by the enormous 

 mass of epiphytes with which they are covered. The third class consists 

 almost exclusively of species of Fagus, with a very sparse undergrowth of Aralia, 

 Coprosma, Rubus, etc. These enormous beech forests will, no doubt, become 

 valuable as the country becomes more thickly peopled, for the timber is well 

 adapted for shipbuilding, and for a large variety of other useful purposes, and the 

 bark yields a considerable quantity of tannin. The great difference in appear- 

 ance which these Beech forests present, as compared with the other classes of 

 bush to which I have referred, is very striking. As a rule they are open and 

 easily traversed, biit the eye becomes fatigued, and the mind oppressed by 

 their monotony, and by the general absence of life which characterises them. 



To the North of the Isthmus between Auckland and the head of the Manu- 

 kau occur extensive forests of kauri, the only true coniferous tree found in these 

 Islands. It does not now occur as a common tree south of the above line, though 

 I am informed that single specimens have been observed as far south as Kawhia ; 

 but the bituminous shales associated with some of the coals of Otago, present 

 numerous impressions of formsof Dammara closely allied to the living tree, leading 

 us to the conclusion that the latter is the modified descendant and representative 

 of forms which flourished abundantly during those far distant periods. A fossil 

 gum, chemically undistinguishable from the kauri gum of the north, is also 

 found in the brown coals throughout these Islands, and even in the Chatham 

 Islands, from which we may also infer that these coals are in part derived from 

 altered wood of trees belonging to the same germs, which formed part of the 

 earlier vegetation of that larger area, of which New Zealand is assumed to be 

 only a remnant. 



With the Fauna of these Islands I must deal even more sketchily than I 

 have done with the Flora, for, with the exception of its birds, very little has 

 been attempted towards illustrating this branch of their Natural History. The 

 only mammal (exclusive of two or three species of Bat) which was known to 

 be indigenous to these Islands, was the Kiore, or so-called Native rat. It has 

 been the fashion to assume that before the arrival of Europeans in this Colony, 

 this creature was common, and to attribute its destruction to the European 

 rat, and, indeed, the natives have been credited with a proverb in relation to 

 this point. It is not in effect impossible, that the ultimate destruction of those 

 which still existed when trade was first opened between Europeans and the 

 Natives, long after the colonization of New South Wales, may have been 



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