SKETCH or 



THE BOTANY OF OTAGO, 



By JOHN BUCHANAN, 



OF THE GEOLOGICAL SIJBVET OF NEW ZEALAND. 



^Written for the Neio Zealand HccJiihition, 1865.] 



The Province of Otago possesses an equable climate, and to this cause may 

 be ascribed its evergreen flora. Tbe Mountain ranges, also, by influencing 

 the humidity of the climate, cause a great variety in the flora by forming 

 humid and arid districts. 



The general f acies of the vegetation of the province, on its eastern water- 

 shed, is grassy, the greater area being open grass land, with comparatively 

 smaller areas of bush along the coast line and in the gullies of the mountain 

 ranges ; whereas, on the western watershed the whole country from the sea 

 to an altitude of 3,000 feet, on the mountains, is covered with bush. 



It is evident that at no distant time the greater part of the province was 

 covered with forest. On many of the grassy ridges may still be found the 

 remains of large trees, and over large areas the surface is dotted with the 

 little hillocks and corresponding hollows produced by the upturned roots of 

 trees which have been blown over, generally in the line of prevailing winds, 

 after their destruction by fire, and no doubt there have been many denuda- 

 tions and reproductions of bush. 



At the beginning of the settlement large tracts of the province were 

 being reclothed with bush, but as the country was opened for cattle and 

 sheep runs, this new growth was again burnt off, and a luxuriant growth of 

 native grasses appeared without seed being sown. 



In 1852, much of what is now the finest grass country on the Clutha, 

 Tuapeka, A-Vaitahuna, Pomahaka, and "Wyndham districts was covered by an 

 impenetrable growth of shrubs and young trees. 



The further extension of bush, therefore, has been arrested by settlement; 

 and the still existing portion will gradually disappear in the process of clear- 

 ing the land for cultivation, and for use as fuel, building, and fencing. 



