﻿248 Transactions. — Botany. 



exhibits a closer affinity, — in fact contains a larger propoi'tion of plants common 

 to both countries than the sections at which we have just glanced, still we miss 

 the regal waterlilies, the flowering rush, the white and yellow bog-beans, the 

 loose-strifes, arrow-head, and water-violet, which so often beautify the streams, 

 lakes, and marshes of Britain. The forest veg-i: Jon of New Zealand com- 

 prises some of the grandest flowering plants known : the same must be 

 unreservedly admitted of its alpine flora ; but if we further except a few fine 

 plants peculiar to the Auckland and Chatham Islands, there are scarcely any 

 herbaceous plants remarkable for the beauty of their flowers. The social 

 characters of the trees composing the sylvan flora of Britain contrast forcibly 

 with those of the New Zealand forests. In the former, forests of oak, beech, 

 Scotch fir, hornbeam, holly, etc., are, or rather were, not uncommon ; but 

 few of our trees exhibit this characteristic, more especially in the north. The 

 kahikatea certainly forms large forests in the swamps Southwards, the beech 

 on the hills, the tawa, and taraire, not unfrequently form large portions of the 

 forest; the totara, the kauri, and a few other trees, occur in groves or patches ; 

 but, excepting the southern beeches, there is no tree which grows almost 

 exclusively for miles, as was the case with the oak, Scotch fir, etc., etc. Our 

 forests are highly varied, and not unfrequently exhibit a larger number of 

 species of ligneous plants in a single district, than could perhaps be found in 

 the greater part of Europe ; but this almost tropical vaiiety in itself detracts 

 from the sense of grandeur which is inspired by continuous masses of any one 

 kind of arboreal vegetation. 



Ligneous plants form one-eighth part of the phsenogamic Flora of New 

 Zealand, but less than one forty-seventh part of the same section of the 

 British Flora ; and of this small proportion a limited number only can 

 be called trees — the oak, ash, beech, hornbeam, birch, aspen, white and 

 grey poplars, white and bedford willows, wych elm, holly, small-leaved 

 lime, alder, maple, Scotch fir, and yew, — a number fully equalled by the 

 New Zealand pines and beeches alone. Of British trees not a single 

 species is marked by conspicuous flowers,* and only one by attractive 

 fruit, — there is no representative of our pohutukawa and the various 

 ratas {Metrosideros sp.), the rewa-rewa {Knightia excelsa), hinau [Elceocarpus 

 dentatus), ixerba (/. brexioides), towai [Weinmannia silvicola), toro 

 (Persoonia Toro), kohe-kohe {Dysoxylum spectahile), puriri {Vitex littoralis), 

 ackama {A. roscefolia), hohere {Hoheria Sinclairii), kowhai (Sopliora tetr al- 

 tera), lace-bark {Plagianthus Lyallii), and many others with their showy 

 flowers — or, excepting the holly, of the tawa [Nesodaphne Tawa), taraire 



*Possibly the male catkins of the white willow [Salix alba L. ) may be considered 

 sufficiently attractive to qualify the above statement : those of the bay willow 

 (S. pentandra L. ) are very handsome, but it can scarcely be called a tree. 



