36 Historical Notes on the 



herbaceous plants, and by which some of the most conspicuous and 

 beautiful flowers in New Zealand are produced. Everywhere in shady 

 spots or moist localities a rich herbaceous vegetation is growing, 

 amongst which Ranunculus Lyallii, the king of the Banunculacece with 

 its large orbicular leaves and the fine leafed Ligusticum Haastii are 

 the most conspicuous. Besides them Senecio Haastii, Geum parviflorum, 

 several GnapheUums and Celmisias, and many others, form a gay contrast 

 to the stern features of th e landscape. The rich green deeply cut 

 leaves and large black berries of the Coriaria angustissima, a Coprosma 

 with a red, and a Gaultlieria with a white berry, and several of our sub- 

 alpine Raoidias and small ferns form a many coloured carpet below 

 the former more conspicuous plants. Along the small waterfalls or 

 rills several species of Epilobium Myosotis, Euphrasia, and many 

 others, grow most abundantly. The shingle slips and rocky pro- 

 jections are also not without an interesting vegetation, showing that 

 nature had clothed even these barren spots with some of her most 

 charming productions. 



The animal life in these regions is equally interesting, although its 

 presence is not without some drawbacks. The principal inhabitants of the 

 flat where our camp stood were a great number of Woodhens (Ocydromus 

 australis) generally of large size, and a still greater host of rats by which 

 we were sometimes much disturbed during the night. These rats all 

 belong co the large grey Norwegian species, which thus had already 

 reached the very heart of our Alps. The AVoodhens were sometimes also a 

 great nuisance. When leaving camp for the day, we had to be very careful 

 that every small article was well secured, but notwithstanding this pre- 

 caution we lost a number of things — for instance, pieces of soap were 

 taken away from under our eyes whilst w r e were occupied with our 

 ablutions ; two Kakas which were left for a short time lying on a 

 stone near the camp, were in a very few minutes, whilst the cook 

 attended to the fire, hacked to pieces and the intestines pulled out. 

 But as a woodhen at our last camp near the Jollie had run away with 

 the case of a small minimum thermometer, and which, owing to the 

 impenetrable character of the vegetation near the camp we were unable 

 to recover, we were now very careful that a similar loss should not occur 

 a^ain. W hat gave still greater interest to the spot was the presence of a 

 number of large green alpine parrots (Nestor notabilis) the Kea of the 

 Xatives, which visited constantlythe small groves of beech trees near our 

 c amp ; they came generally in small flocks, tour to eight together, and 

 were sometimes accompanied by two other species of Nestor, of which one 



