78 Historical Notes on the 



flora begins, consisting of fine tree-like shrubs, often eight to twelve 

 feet high, mostly Composite, among which Olearia ilicifolia, nummu- 

 lar (folia, and Cunningliamii, and Senecio elceagnifolius, are especially 

 remarkable. The unpleasing sombre green colour of the beech forest in 

 the valley is now replaced by different tints, very intense, varying from 

 bright yellowish green to dark bluish green, and deep brown. Besides 

 this, all the above-named Composite have the under side of the leaf 

 covered with a w r hite or yellow down, which gives the whole landscape 

 a variegated appearance, especially when, as at many places, numerous 

 shrubs of Dracophyllum lonqifolium and unifiorum, covered with dark 

 brown leaves grow between them. Many bushes of Panax, with their 

 bright green leaves reminding us of the river vegetation we had ieft, are 

 also to be seen. The nearer we approached the summit of the pass, the 

 denser became the vegetation. An undescribed, superb, tree-like 

 Dracopliyllum, not unlike the Drac. latifolium of the northern island, 

 began to appear here (named afterwards D. Traversii by Dr. Hooker). 

 The natives (.all it Xene. It has leaves a foot long running out into a 

 slender point of a reddish brown colour in tne upper part, between 

 which the elegant flower panicle comes forth. This plant raises its 

 tree-like crown gracefully above the other shrubs, and gives the region 

 a highly peculiar character. The mist which had been falling began to 

 change into rain as we arrived on the flat ridge of the saddle, at 

 some places overgrown with Daathonia flavescens, the snow grass 

 of the colonists, between which numerous specimens of Celmisia coriacea 

 Lyallii, and discolor made their appearance. Other places were 

 swampy and covered with Sphagnum moss, between which stood here and 

 there little half globe-like bushes of Dracophyllum rosmarinifolium 

 together with the large Ranunculus Lyallii, and one or two sub-alpine 

 umbelliferous plants. This vegetation ascended on both sides of the 

 mountains, bordering the pass for at least 1500 feet, before the real 

 aioine flora began. The mountains on both sides, immediately above 

 the pass, attain a height of about 7000 feet, and do not reach the 

 line of perpetual snow. From earlier descriptions, I had expected to 

 find higher mountains here ; but I could, nevertheless, perceive them 

 more towards the west, and ,on both sides of the Teramakau valley. 

 Though the view westward was very much limited by the rain, 

 which fell uninterruptedly, I was nevertheless able to perceive that 

 the saddle shelved off more steeply towards the western side than the 

 eastern, and that at the foot of the saddle a broad straight valley 

 commenced. Although the ascent of the eastern side had been 

 accompanied with difficulties, still we had been able to reach the summit 



