162 Essaijs. 



are cliaractei'iisties botli of tlie arboreous and .slirubby vegetation. The 

 difference is so marked that I retain tlie most A'irid recollection o£ tlie 

 physiognomy of the Tasmanian mountains and valleys, but a very indifferent 

 one of the New Zealand forest, Avhere all is, comparatively speaking, blended 

 into one green mass, relieved at the Bay of Islands by the symmetrical 

 crown of the Tree-fern, the pale green fountain of foliage of the Dacrydium 

 ciifressinum and the poplar-like KnigMia overtopping all. It is true that 

 there is more variety in the latter country than is expressed by the selection 

 of a few individuals, and a little reflection recalls a vast number of noble 

 and some beautiful botanical objects ; but with the exception of groves of the 

 Kahikatea Pine (Podocarims dacrydioides) on the swampy river banks, the 

 Foonaderris and Leptospermum on the open hill sides, and Dammara on their 

 crests, there is little to arrest the botanist's first glance ; and nothing in the 

 massing or grouping of the species of any natural order renders that order 

 an important element in the general landscape, or gives individuality to any 

 of its parts by flowers and gaiety or by foliage and gloom. The same 

 features prevail even so far south as Lord Auckland's group, where Draco- 

 phyllum, Coprosma, Metrosideros, Panax, and a shrubby Veronica unite to 

 form an evergreen mantle : and I suspect, from the accounts I have heard 

 and read, that they are repeated on the damp cool coasts of Chili, to the 

 north of the region of the sombre beech forests Avhich cloth the Fuegian 

 Islands." 



The colonist of the South Island of New Zealand, if he happens to visit 

 the Province of Auckland, and more particularly its northern portions, will 

 not fail to recognize, in this beautiful and striking language, a vivid picture 

 of the forest scenery of the Northern Island. But it does not apply to the 

 vegetation of Nelson, Canterbury, or Otago. The fact is, that in this 

 respect Dr. Hooker has fallen into the same mistake as all other writers 

 upon New Zealand until within a very few years. Prom, say, about the 

 year 1830 until 1850 the Bay of Islands and Auckland were considered to 

 be New Zealand, and a variety of works were given to the world descriptive 

 of this country, founded upon a visit to its northern extremity. Until the 

 settlements of Canterbury and Otago were founded, the South Island of 

 New Zealand was hardly known at all. It is true that the great navigator 

 Cook selected two of its harbours. Queen Charlotte Sound and Dusky Bay, 

 as his favourite resting-places; and the celebrated botanists Avho accompanied 

 him. Banks, Solander, and the Porsters, collected their specimens in the 

 neighbourhood of these harbours, and saw and studied its flora there. 

 But of the intervening portions of the country they appear to have seen 

 hardly anything, and the plains and grassy downs of the South Island, now 

 the chief field of settlement, and constituting the great bulk of the country 



