472 
NEW ZEALAND 
above sea-level, the summit 1000 ft. higher. We ate our lunch to 
pass the time, but finally gave up all hope and walked dismally 
down. 
Under such distressing circumstances it was only to be expected 
that the bag would be but a small one. Belated blossoms of *Gentiana 
corymbifera, T. Kirk, and of the Shepherd’s Lily (* Ranunculus lyallii, 
Hooker), gave us hints of what the New Zealand alpine Flora 
must be in its prime. At the higher elevations I got nothing but 
a Grasshopper, which was much in evidence, and a solitary example 
of what I take to be * Scoparia axena, Meyrk. On the lower slopes 
whenever the sun shone the pretty little * Notoreas brephosata, Walk., 
was to be seen commonly enough, though (as Mr. Hudson truly re¬ 
marks *) not too easy either to see or to capture. It derives its name 
from its striking resemblance to a very small Brephos parthenias, 
Linn., just as a very nearly allied New Zealand moth is called 
* Dasyuris partheniata , Guen., although both belong to quite another 
sub-family of the Geometers. Amongst the common brephosata 
I found a worn example of * N. perornata , Walk. Somewhat lower 
down flying about bare stony places in the sunshine might be seen 
the tiny *Arctesthes cata'pyrrha, Butl. This pretty insect Mr. Hudson 
(following Meyrick) includes under lythria euclidiata , Guen., an 
Australian species; to me, however, the two insects appear abund¬ 
antly distinct, and Mr. Prout is of the same opinion. As the lake 
is approached * Asaphodes abrogata and * Coremia semisignata both 
become common. 
That night the rain made sugaring quite out of the question. 
The next morning we tried the hill slopes immediately above the 
town, but, taking what proved to be an ill-judged course, we wasted 
much time and energy in contending with natural obstacles. Some 
of the lower slopes around Lake Wakatipu are extraordinarily 
difficult to climb. It goes without saying that they are steep and 
rough in the extreme, but they look most innocent in their mantle 
of fern. This fern—our familiar Bracken ( Pteris aquilina , Linn., 
var. esculenta , 2 Hook.)—is found, on closer acquaintance, to form a 
dense tangle about 5 or 6 feet high. I have myself met with Bracken 
in Jamaica and Ceylon, but I have no hesitation in admitting the 
superiority of Antipodean Bracken to all other. The difficulty of 
1 “ New Zealand Moths and Butterflies,” p. 75. Mr. Hudson refers with ap¬ 
proval to Lord Walsingham’s address to the Entomological Society in 1891, in 
which the then President expressed the opinion that the brilliantly coloured hind- 
wings of many day-flying moths dazzled the eye, so as to make it even more difficult 
for a pursuer to mark the spot where one of them alights than it would be otherwise. 
2 In the old days the rhizome was an important article of diet with the Maoris. 
