Mo'N'RO. — Georjrapliicrtl Bofanjj of JSTelson and MarJhorou(j}i>. j 165 



and more particularly ou the western side of the island, will doubtless show 

 a very considerable variety of those trees which are met with in the warmer 

 valleys of the Northern Island of New Zealand. On the plains and the 

 alluvial soils there will be found an abundance of pines, and the flora will 

 bear what may be called the ordinary New Zealand asjject. But no sooner 

 do we leave the lower levels and rise a few hundred feet along the mountain 

 sides, than we find ourselves in a peculiar forest, which occupies the 

 ground as exclusively as the pine in the colder parts of the northern hemis- 

 phere, or the Eucalyptii^s in the xlustralian ranges. "We are surrounded 

 by evergreen beeches of various sorts ; and nothing breaks the monotony of 

 the forest save here and there the pale-green rimu, which mostly loves 

 the hollows, or the cypress-like foliage and red stem of the hardy Tlmja 

 doniana, which grows on the summits of the ridges. 



Blind Bay is enclosed between two lofty ranges, which, separated at 

 their seaAvard extremities by a distance of some forty miles, gradually 

 approximate, as we trace them southwards, until they coalesce in the ele- 

 vated region of the Spencer Mountains. Upon the flanks of these, the 

 principal rivers of the northern part of the South Island — the Wairau, the 

 BuUer, the Clarence, and the Dillon^— take their rise. The eastern arm of 

 th'ese two ranges divides Blind Bay from the valley of the Wairau, widening 

 as it advances northward, and enclosing between its broken and deeply 

 indented fingers the estuaries of the Pelorus and Queen Charlotte Sound. 

 The western arm, wider and loftier, sinks down to the north upon the 

 shores of Massacre or Golden Bay, enclosiug between its spurs the valleys 

 of the Takaka and the Aorere Sivers. These two great ranges are clothed 

 with an almost unbroken monotony of evergreen beeches. A botanist 

 landing at the head of Queen Charlotte Sound, or v\'here the Pelorus 

 E-iver enters the sea, would find a considerable variety of noble trees and 

 many most beautiful evergreen shrubs. Where the ground Avas moistest, 

 and indicated the existence of stagnant water, he would be surrounded by 

 the grand mast-like stems of the White Pine {Podooarpii,s dacrydioides), 

 generally green with moss, and often festooned with climbing parasites. 

 On the drier ground he would find the Mai, or Eed Pine {Podocarpus 

 spicata), cleaner in the bark, less mast-like than the former, and carrying a 

 greater head of foliage. On the still drier ground there would be the noble 

 Totara {Podoearpiis totard), ten feet, perhaps, in diameter, or even more, 

 with its broAvn bark scaling ofl: in long vertical strips, and its branches 

 shooting athwart one another with the picturesqueness of the old English 

 Oak. Mixed up with these he might find the Pukatea {Atherosperma novce- 

 zealandiod), with its bright green foliage, its pale grey bark, and deep parietal 

 buttresses; the TaAva {Nesodapline taioa), and the Kowhai {Edioardsia 



