280 The N.Z. Journal of Science and Technology. . [Jan. 
isolated places. It was all a mixed forest, and though I cannot give details 
of its composition I may enumerate a few of the trees which composed it. 
Of the pines which grew in large numbers throughout the greater part of 
it, the red-pine or rimu ( Dacrydium cupressinum), the miro ( Podocarpus 
ferruginous), and the black-pine or matai (P. spicatus ) were the most 
abundant, with fewer white-pines (P. dacrydioides) and still fewer totara 
(some P. totara , but probably mostly P. Hallii). On the higher levels, in 
place of these, the cedar ( Librocedrus Bidwillii) and Phyllocladus alpinus 
were abundant. Towards the head of the North-east Valley a considerable 
quantity of tree-manuka ( Leptospermum ericoides ) grew ; and one of the 
ribbonwoods ( Plagianthus divaricatus), which used to be common all round 
Pelichet Bay and elsewhere near the head of the harbour, is almost extinct 
there. Besides the broadleaf ( Griselinia littoralis), fuchsia (P. excorticata) 
hinahina ( Melicytus ramifiorus), and other widely distributed trees, an 
occasional pokaka ( Elaeocarpus Hookerianus ) and pennantia (P. corymbosa) 
were to be found. A solitary birch, as it was called ( Nothofagus Menziesii), 
grew in the bush just above where Ravensbourne now is, and there were 
a few trees of the same species on the saddle above Ross Creek reservoir, 
some of which still, I think, exist. 
The forest which filled the Leith Valley was wonderfully open, the 
supplejack ( Rhipogonum scandens) being almost entirely absent and 
occurring in but limited areas. The fern-growth was most luxuriant, and 
various filmy ferns, chiefly Hymenophyllum demissum and H. dilatatum 
covered large areas, carpeting the ground and running up tree-trunks, whilst 
the stems of the tree-ferns were draped with others, such as H. rarum and 
Trichomanes venosum. The tree-ferns, often lofty, were numerous, and 
were chiefly Dicksonia fibrosa (which we then knew as D. antarctica), 
D. squarrosa, and Hemitelia Smithii. The beautiful silver tree-fern ( Cyathea 
dealbata) did not occur there, but was abundant on the Peninsula and in 
the forest on the northern side of the harbour. I remember splendid groves 
of it which grew at the foot of the hill where the mountain begins to rise 
from the level in Sawyer’s Bay. Alsophila Colensoi grew above the bush¬ 
line on Flagstaff, where it still grows, but of the others few remain. Todea 
hymenophylloides was abundant, as higher up the valley, near the saddle, 
was T . superba. It grew so profusely as to quite cover the ground over 
large areas. 
I need not dwell on the ferns of the neighbourhood, some of which were 
rare and extremely limited in distribution, as I append a list of the ferns 
I collected within an afternoon’s walking-distance around Dunedin in the 
later “ sixties ” and early “ seventies ” of last century, several of which 
are not now to be found in the neighbourhood. It may not, however, be 
devoid of interest if I specially mention a few of those which were very 
limited in their distribution. Davallia novae-zealandiae was found in only 
one small patch near the edge of the bush where the road to Waitati begins 
to descend thence after traversing the saddle. Gleiclienia Cunninghamii 
occurred in one place a considerable distance up the Leith Valley, and 
also similarly over Flagstaff, near Whare Flat. Nephrodium velutinum and 
N. decompositum were met with in a few places only, the former on the 
Town Belt near where the road to the Northern Cemetery enters the Belt, 
the southern slope of Woodhaugh, and at Macandrew’s Bay, and the latter 
also at Woodhaugh, the head of Tomahawk Lagoon, and on the harbour- 
side some way below where Ravensbourne now is. Asplenium fiahellifolium 
and A. Hookerianum grew on the rocks on the banks of the Leith near 
