﻿Kirk. — The British and New Zealand Floras compared. 249 



{Nesodaphne Taraire), kahikatea {Podocarpus dacrydioides), miro {Podocarjms 

 ferruginea), matai {Podocarpus spicata), titoki {Alectryon excelsum), and 

 liedycarya {H. dentata), with their attractive fruit. 



The striking characteristic arising from a rich variety of species, not seldom 

 belonging to orders unrepresented in Britain, is intensified by the peculiar 

 habits and mode of growth of many N"ew Zealand forms. In the lower parts of 

 the forest we find the pukatea {Atherosperma Novce Zelandice), with the base of 

 its trunk developed into wide-spreading buttresses^ its white bark contrasting 

 strangely with its bright green foliage : near it the maire-tawhake {Eugenia 

 Maire), clothed from base to summit with white myrtle-like flowers and 

 leaves, by the side of the tall shafts of the kahikatea, with its sparse foliage : 

 on drier ground the tanekaha {Phyllocladus trichomanoides), and the striking 

 toa-toa (Phyllodadus glauca) display their highly developed phyllodia ; the 

 grand columns of the kauri (^Dammara australis) rise to the height of from 

 sixty to eighty feet without a branch, and, from their bulk and symmetry, 

 fairly claim the supremacy of the forest ; the totara, remarkable amongst New 

 Zealand pines for its peculiar bark, and oftentimes of huge girth, the much 

 branched hinau with its flowers of creamy white, by the side perchance of an 

 immense rirau [Dacrydiuni cupressiiium), with its peculiar pendent branchlets, 

 the kawaka (Libocedncs Doniana) or arbor-vitse, recognised at a distance by its 

 bark hanging in broad ribbon-like flakes and the young plants at its base, 

 showing how apposite was its old trivial name " plumosum ;" the puriri with 

 its white slippery bark and glossy foliage ; the huge, often mis-shaped northern 

 rata (Metrosideros rohusta), which, commencing life as an epiphyte on some forest 

 giant, sent down aerial stems, and developed them into large trunks which 

 have strangled the fostering tree, above the remains of which its branches wave, 

 often a hundred feet from the ground, and laden with flowers of fiery crimson ; 

 the rawiri {Leptospermum ericoides) or tea-tree, with spray-like branches laden 

 with myriads of white flowers, its loose bark waving in the wind ; the miro 

 and matai with their yew like foliage ; the tawa, with leaves resembling some 

 of the British willows, and its sister-tree, the taraire, perchance, with the 

 dusky tints of its fine foliage appearing still browner from the close proximity 

 of a glossy karaka [Corynocarpus IcBvigata). Here, fine panicles of white 

 flowers break from the uneven bark of the kohe-kohe {Dysoxylum sp^ectabile), 

 with its walnut-like foliage, there a fine arborescent lily- wort {Gordyline sps.), 

 the only plant that can be said to impart a special character to the New Zealand 

 landscape, waves its palm-like leaves, every branch tipped by an immense 

 panicle of fragrant flowers. Mingled with all the southern palm {Areca 

 sapida) attains its extreme height of fifty feet, and exhibits at once both the 

 grace and stateliness of its order, only surpassed in beauty by the noble 

 arborescent ferns [Alseuosmia macrophylla) which abound in the moist gullies. 



