290 
Memoranda of an Excursion 
me. This plant bears an oblong succulent crimson- 
coloured bacca , containing several large angular and 
irregularly shaped seeds; its growth is diffuse and 
slender with but few branches, and its height is from 
5-9 feet. In habit alone it closely approaches to some 
species of the Coprosma genus. There were several of 
them here, on the immediate banks of a little rivulet 
which ran through this dell; I did not, however, observe 
it in any other locality. Continuing my journey, I 
found (in ascending the first clayey hill from the sea¬ 
side) a handsome shrubby Dracophyllum ; a species not 
noticed by Cunningham in his “ Precursor” This 
shrub is from 2-5 feet in height, somewhat rigid in its 
growth, and branched at bottom. It will (with the 
other new species already mentioned, p. 266) naturally 
fall between J). latifolium , Banks , and D. Urmllianum y 
Rich ., and thus well connect the whole of the already 
known New Zealand species. We travelled on, over 
open and barren heaths, in a northerly direction until 
sunset. Observed nothing new in these dreary and 
sterile wilds save the Dracophyllum already mentioned. 
Bivouacked for the night in a little dell, nestling among 
the close growing Leptospermum , not a stick being any 
where within ken large enough to serve as a tent pole. 
The next morning we re-commenced our journey in 
rain. Country, for several miles, much the same as 
that we passed over yesterday. About noon we passed 
by some forests of Dammar a, which were burning 
fiercely; some person or persons who had lately passed 
that way having set fire to the brushwood, which soon 
communicated to the forests. This is an event of very 
common occurrence in New Zealand, and is often 
thoughtlessly done by the natives to cause a blaze! 
