176 Essays. 



distribution, have presented some differing conditions of life, yet as the 

 whole area is continuous, and the physical conditions of each district gradu- 

 ate away somewhat insensibly into those of the other, we cannot expect to 

 find any more materia-l differences in their natural productions than such as 

 may be attributed to modifying influences produced by difference of 

 climate. 



The Canterbury Plains before alluded to'are generally well grassed, and 

 contain, here and there, extensive tracts of what is termed swampy land, 

 covered with a luxuriant growth of Plwrmium tenax, various species of 

 Juncese and Cyperacese, and other plants common in similar localities all 

 over the island j whilst in moist but less swampy places we find clumps of 

 Cordyline australis breaking the otherwise absolute monotony of the 

 scenery. 



The plains as a rule are destitute of timber, although to the north of 

 Christchurch, and in the neighbourhood of Timaru, we still find small patches 

 of forest. In the swampy lands bordering the sea, moreover, at depths 

 varying from four to twenty feet, a vast amount of buried timber is found, 

 evidently the remains of forests once continuous with the isolated patches 

 still growing ; but it is remarkable that although amongst this buried timber 

 considerable quantities of pukatea {Atlierosperma novce-zealandicB) occur, I 

 was unable to find a single tree of that species in any part of the living 

 forest. The latter, however, still comprises JElceocarpus liinau, Podocarpus 

 ferruginea, P. spicata, P. dacrydioides, and P. totara, scarcely inferior in size 

 or general appearance to the same trees in the Nelson district. Banks 

 Peninsula also produces an abundance of the same timber, but the wood is 

 found to be coarse in texture, and applicable only to the commoner uses, 

 carpenters and cabinet-makers rejecting it in favour of wood from the 

 northern parts of the Colony. 



But whilst these trees produce inferior timber, we find the Edimrdsia 

 grandiflora (which in the Nelson district is merely a small tree) attaining 

 on Banks Peninsula the dimensions of a timber tree, yielding valuable wood, 

 remarkable for its durability, particularly when used for fencing and other 

 purposes exposing it to the action of the w^eather. In the small trees and 

 the general undergrowth of the forest we are not struck, at first sight, with , 

 any very marked change, but closer examination reveals the entire absence 

 of some genera, and that those which are common to both districts are not 

 represented in that of Canterbury by so many species as in that of Nelson. 



Por example, while the Nesodapline taioa, and some of the more beautiful 

 species of Malvaceae, are common in the warm, wooded valleys of the Nelson 

 district, we do not find the former, and only different species of the latter 

 in the Canterbury woods. Myoporum Icetum, which grows to a large size 



