90 
NATURE NOTES. 
forest, withering at once when exposed to dry winds or sunshine. 
A number of tree ferns close alongside are shooting forth huge 
brown circinate fronds, or rvhere the wind ruffles their expanded 
feathery leaves, showing the silver beneath. The scented palm- 
lily or “cabbage tree” is loaded with elegant spikes of white 
blossom. In spite of its prosaic name, this is one of our most 
ornamental trees. Whether drawn b}- the height of the forest 
trees or growdng more sturdily alone, or wrapped, like a beggar, 
in cloak of russet brown leaves that cling to the stem, or standing 
solitary on the mountain tops, it is always graceful and beautiful. 
These trees wdll stand terrific blasts of wind, for the upward- 
growing sharp leaves at the end of each bare bough offer no more 
resistance than the silk of an umbrella blown inside out. The 
berries of the titoki are ripe now, the ebony seed embedded in 
cups of scarlet flesh, after the manner of the yew at home. In 
the titoki, however, the colours are very much more brilliant. 
On the higher hill slopes where the bush ends the manuka 
begins. It takes the place of the gorse of the old countr}% and 
is the curse of half the North Island. From where I sit I can 
see many of the hillsides white wdth its pretty florvers. Millions 
of bronze-green beetles live on the tender shoots, and native bees 
innumerable buzz round the faintly scented blossoms. These 
native bees make their nests by boring in cliffs of clay or sand- 
stone. Each bee, I think, lives separate!}-, and in the branch 
passages is deposited honey and pollen mixed ; upon this a 
single egg is laid. In the northern parts of the island the honey 
bees are said to get a great amount of nectar from the manuka, 
but hereabouts I have never seen an English bee upon this 
scrub. 
Twdning round the low bushes upon the edge of the wood, 
the native blackberry flourishes best — “lawyer” it is often 
termed from its tenacity of grip ; sheep in the woolly months 
are often caught, and turning round and round after the foolish 
manner of their kind, twist the runners into a rope so strong 
that even a man cannot break it. As a rule, after being burnt 
off the “ lawyers ” die ; whereas the British blackberry is almost 
impossible to kill — another example of the great vitality of the 
imported vegetation. Now and again, in the varying breezes, a 
whiff of the smell of the heinga-heinga reaches me. Its odour 
is so strong and so like the smell of swine, that I have known 
even natives pig-hunting deceived by the strange resemblance. 
From the dead boughs of a huge totara, standing high above 
the mushroom timber of a few score years, the tuis ceaselessly 
dart and return ; as they swoop down from above, with the noise 
of a stick drawn rapidly through the air, the sun gleams on the 
metallic reflections of their plumage. There are no more liquid 
notes in the whole forest than those of the “ parson bird,” though 
sometimes this strange songster ends the most exquisite melody 
by a sound only to be compared to a drunkard clearing his throat. 
The name “ parson-bird ” has been applied to the tui because of 
