254 
Memoranda of an Excursion 
riencing no little difficulty in the obtaining of a guide 
over the mountains, in which service I was obliged to 
enlist all my suasory powers. This point settled, we 
commenced ascending from the shores of the lake, pass¬ 
ing through dense forests, chiefly composed of fine trees 
of Podocarpus , Fagus , and Ixerba . Having gained the 
summit of the range, we found travelling easy; for in 
these forests, where the broad-leaved Fagus is the prin¬ 
cipal tree, there is but little underwood. Indeed, plants 
generally seem as if they did not like the shade of these 
trees. One of the first things which attracted my atten¬ 
tion this morning, was a peculiar little hexandrous plant 
of climbing habit, with large and succulent white supe¬ 
rior-berried fruit, terminal and solitary, with alternate 
linear-lanceolate leaves entire and mucronate, having 
parallel veins laterally netted, which grew here and 
there at the foot of large trees, wherever the light 
decaying vegetable mould was deepest. I sought as¬ 
siduously for perfect specimens, and was at length 
rewarded with such in flower and fruit. This curious 
little plant has a most peculiar aspect, evidently con¬ 
stituting a remarkable link between endogens and 
exogens. To me, its affinities appear to rank it some¬ 
where near the Natural Order Smilaceoe. I have not, 
however, met with anything like it in New Zealand. 
Some small shrubs I noticed having the habit of Myr- 
sine, but could not detect them in flower or fruit. My 
peering about was eventually rewarded with a new ter¬ 
restrial Orchis , a pretty little plant with a single leaf, 
bearing a long one-flowered scape; it grew singly about 
the bases of large trees, and appeared to be scarce. 
The natives told us, before we started, that we might 
expect rain on these mountains (they having a proverb 
