180 PLANTS OF NEW ZEALAND 



lialf-dozen species belonging to the southern genus Nofhofagiis, which is found 

 also in Sovith America and Austraha. In the northern hemisphere on the other 

 liand, tlie family is very largely developed, and includes most of the important 

 deciduous trees of North America and the Eurasian Continent. The forests, 

 therefore, of the north temperate zone are really of older type than those of 

 south temperate regions. 



In South America, however, Nofliofiirjiis in many places forms as large a 

 conrponeirt of the flora as in New Zealand. Darwin's description, in " The 

 Vo\"age of a Naturalist," of the forests of Tierra del Puego, might well have been 

 written of some bush creek in south-western Otago. Replace Fagus betuloides 

 l)v a local species, and the Winter's Bark by the closel}^ allied Driiiiys axillaris, 

 and the picture is now completely true for New Zealand. 



Probably nowhere else in the southern hemisphere could one find two such 

 similar forests, suirdered by an ocean one-third of the circumference of the earth 

 iu width. 



The Beech Forest. 



The beecli is a most attractive tree, whether growing in 

 countless hosts, or in soHtary state. When scattered over a 

 plam, such as the valley of the Upper Hutt, it gives the 

 landscape a spacious and park-like as})ect. It is equally as 

 handsome, when it covers the folds of some giant alp with a 

 garment of uniform thickness and changeless hue. Perhaps 

 the l:)eech forest is most beautiful when its depths are illuminated 

 by the ra3's of sunset. 



It often happens in Canterbury, during a north-west gale, 

 tliat just before nightfall the sun drops below tire heavy 

 curtain of clouds nito the clear arch of sky below, and " at 

 evening it is light." As the level beams are thrown into the 

 recesses of some sombre bush-clad ravine in the foot-hills, 

 the sight is one to be remembered for a lifetime. Tliough 

 quite natiii'al, it seems, from the vividness of its spectacular 

 elfects, unnatural. The giant limbs of the trees push forth on 

 all sides with lance-hke thrust, and the mter-spaces between 

 tlieir wide-spreading horizontal branches, form pathv^'ays, by 

 A\iiich the shafted light can [ienetrate far into the bush. The 

 gi'eat lialls of greenery arc revealed in vista after vista, and in 

 the background are seen the brown, dead leaves, that "lag the 

 forest l)rook along," f(jr m these di'ier districts there is little 



