144 



for the advanced jDeriod of the season at which these observations were 

 made. 



Several feeders empty themselves into the Waikato, more especially on its 

 western bank ; most of these are of tortuous course, running for many miles 

 among the hills. A description of the chief features of the Opuatia Creek, 

 which was explored for twenty-five miles fi'om its mouth, may be taken as a 

 general representation of those of other creeks. The first five or six miles 

 passes through extensive raupo swamps, occasionally relieved by large patches 

 of New Zealand fiax and various sedges ; on the margins of quiet reaches, 

 Riccia jiuitans , previously known as a New Zealand plant only in deep water 

 in the Wairarapa Valley, is occasionally found, but is by no means common. 

 Large kahikatea swamps were relieved by a dense undergrowth of various 

 species of Copros7na, which, at this late period of the season, atoned for the 

 absence of flowers by their brilliant show of berries of orange, purple, crimson, 

 white, red; and jet black ; the efifect being enhanced by the immense panicles of 

 snow-white berries of the ti [Cordyline australis), and, high above all, the 

 bright red fruit of the kahikatea, which were produced in unusual abundance. 

 Asj)le7iiioin australe, Br., one of the few New Zealand plants which evince a 

 decided geognostic preference, was abundant in marshy woods on the impure 

 limestone through which the stream has forced its way. Alluvial ground along 

 the entire course of the creek is covered with European docks, of so dense a 

 growth that it is difficult to force one's way through them, and the common 

 water-cress {NasUm-tmm officinale) is abundant ; for some fifteen miles, the 

 only fluviatile plants were the Potamogetons before mentioned. In the low 

 woods, Plagianthus hetuUnus, one of the most ornamental trees in the flora, 

 was common, but except on dry ground had lost most of its leaves. It 

 deserves to be lai'gely used for ornamental planting ; in habit it is the best 

 representative we have of the European birch, its foliage closely resembling the 

 var. laciniata of that well known tree. 



But the most remarkable feature was the immense abundance, in one or 

 two localities, of a peculiar gToup of plants for the most part members of 

 widely separated families, but agreeing in the production of minute, usually 

 dioecious, flowers, and so closely similar in foliage, and often in ramification, as 

 to be distingiiished only with extreme difficulty in the absence of fruit. Acres 

 were covered with a dense intertwined growth of Panax anofnalum, Pennantia 

 corymhosa, Melicytus micranthus, Myrsine divaricata, Coiyrosina, sps., Eincar- 

 pxirus inicropJiyllus, MuldenhecMa complexa, and young states of Elceocarpus 

 Hooherianus ; — one of the most curious assemblages of plants similar in external 

 appearance, but widely different in structure, that could possibly be met with. 



The young leaves of Panax anomala have hitherto escaped notice ; in this 

 locality they were usually trifoliolate, and irregularly lobed and toothed, 

 resembling those of Ilelicoj^e simjylex, but of more irregular form. They 



