﻿250 Transactions. — Botany. 



The same richness and variety of form, and habit is manifested in the under- 

 growth. The British woods exhibit but few species: the hazel, biickthora, 

 dogwood, crab, hawthorn, service, black thorn, alder, and dwarf willows, form 

 the chief portion of its underwood, w'hich is margined with thickets of brambles 

 and roses. New Zealand exhibits a vast series of shrubby plants and small 

 trees, often producing showy flowers, and varying in kinds — from those found 

 in the warm latitudes of Auckland to those of the cool moisture of Otago and 

 Southland. Most conspicuous in the province of Auckland is the large leaved 

 Alseuosmia, with its pendent fuchsia-like flowers varying from white to crimson, 

 one of the most social plants in the colony. The white-flowered wharangi-piro 

 (Olearia Cunninghamii), varying from a bush to a small tree, is the chief 

 representative in the North Island of the numerous shrubby composites of the 

 south. In rocky places the puka-puka {Br achy glottis repanda), recognised at 

 a considerable distance by its hoary leaves, is abundant, and perchance 

 growing amongst it the rhabdothamnus (R. Solavdri), with its fairy-like 

 bells of orange and scarlet. The hange-hange (Geniostoma ligustrifolia), 

 the kawa-kawa (Piper excelsum), the ngaio {Myoporum IcBtum), the pennantia 

 (P. corymbosa), with its waxlike flowers, various coprosmas (C. grandifolia 

 etc.), several species of senecio {S. glastifolius), with their white or 

 yellow corymbs, shrubby veronicas (F. ligustrifolia, etc.), sometimes attaining 

 the height of fifteen feet, and laden with snowy or lilac-coloured flowers ; 

 the lance-wood [Panax crassifolia), which at first is only a straight rod, 

 perhaps, ten feet high, with linear, toothed, and mottled leaves eighteen inches 

 long, growing downwards at an acute angle with the stem, then becoming 

 slightly branched, it developes trifoliate leaves of a similar character, and 

 ultimately as a small tree exhibiting simple linear-obovate, entire leaves, and 

 unisexual umbels of green flowers. The whau-whau-paku, another araliad, 

 with its broad handsome green foliage ; the whavi (PJntelea arborescens), the 

 ake-ake [jDodonwa viscosa), and numerous other kinds intermingled with a 

 dense growth of a social asteliad {Astelia trinervia), and numerous " cutting- 

 grasses " (Gahnia seti/olia, etc.), whose serrated edges speedily scarify the 

 unprotected hands of the traveller. 



But a still more striking point of contrast is aflforded by the garniture of 

 the trees. In British woods the solitary ivy is the only climbing plant which 

 attains to the summits of the higher trees. A solitary clematis (G. vitalba) 

 and the woodbine {Lonicera Periclymenum) complete the list of ligneous 

 climbers. Rarely the polypody {Polypodium vulgare) may be seen amongst 

 the forks of the branches, but as a rule, beyond a few mosses and lichens, the 

 trees are bare of vegetable growth. 



In the New Zealand forest the huge trees sustain entire assemblages of 

 dissimilar plants. Asteliads [Astelia Solandri, etc.) growing on their limbs 



