64 
NATURAL HISTORY OP NEW ZEALAND. 
at a native settlement, and then proceeded on foot, which, from the late heavy 
r ains, made it very unpleasant, being something after the American fashion of 
travelling by mud ; the first two miles being knee-deep in their mud and water. 
The road passed through a large native village, to which were attached large 
fiats of Indian Corn, Kumaras, and Tarra. The Kumara is a species of sweet 
Potatoe (Ipomcea batatis ), about six inches long, and one inch thick. Some are 
red, others yellow and white. It is the sacred food of the New Zealanders at 
their religious ceremonies or tapus. The Tarra belongs to the natural order 
Aroidece , but to which of its divisions I could not ascertain, as I never saw one in 
flower. The natives had also large quantities of Peach-trees. 
I now began to ascend a range of lofty hills, the road having been cut on the 
summit of a high range, through a dense forest: the foliage of the forest was 
splendid in the] extreme. The Palms on the hills were from thirty to forty feet 
high; some of them were in flower, others in fruit, which was produced in clus¬ 
ters like grapes, and of a crimson colour; they seemed, as Humboldt observes 
of the Palms of South America, to have a region of their own. The road over 
which I past had been cut some years previous, but in 1831 a dreadful hurricane 
visited the island, spreading devastation all around; upsetting houses and 
huts, overwhelming the noblest ornaments of the forest, which in a great man¬ 
ner blocked up the road. Some of the arborescent species of Ferns were splen¬ 
did. Nor were the herbaceous Ferns less beautiful, some of which clasped the 
trunks of trees and stones to such an extent that the ground was literally 
covered with this tribe of plants. 
I observed in this part of the road immense blocks of stone of the same kind as 
the adjacent hills, which could only have been removed by volcanic agency. 
After proceeding about four miles through this forest, I arrived at a fine piece of 
table land, about 1000 acres in extent, and of good rich soil. We travelled four 
miles over this clear plain, and then entered the second or great forest, which, if 
possible, is thicker and denser than the first; on the edge of the forest I found 
Charleswoodia stricta , C. indivisa and C. Australis , growing with the greatest 
luxuriance, some of them being fourteen feet high. 
The path now became very intricate, from the fallen timber, which in many 
places obstructed the road ; the late rain having made it slippery, and my two 
native guides, being barefoot, were as sure-footed as Chamois, while I with strong 
shoes had much to do to get on. After ascending the mountains for about ten 
miles, I came to an opening in the trees, from which one of the finest vistas in 
the world is to be seen. Far below in the valley the white cottages of the Mis¬ 
sion station, imbedded in the most luxuriant hanging woods; whilst the rivers 
Whimar and Hookeanga wound their course like huge Serpents in the valley, the 
distant hills covered with verdure, the high bare perpendicular rocks towering 
above added grandeur to the scene. The scene now changed, the ground being 
