282 The N.Z. Journal of Science and Technology. [Jan. 
locality will realize. One element of the scrub in the river-bed was Veronica 
cupressoides, as 1 received from the late Mr. J. H. Rolland, one of the owners 
of Blackstone Hill Station, several young plants of that veronica, which he 
forwarded to me in Dunedin in response to my request, after he had told 
me of the handsome shrub which grew there. Probably Olearia virgata 
was also represented, as 1 can recall seeing quite a grove of that shrub 
growing to a height of some 10 ft. or 12 ft. in a gully in the Molyneux 
Valley some distance below Roxburgh. The wild-irishman ( Discaria 
toumatou), too, attained a greater stature and was more abundant than now. 
It seems to have resisted extermination better than any of the ligneous 
plants which grew in the interior. The Corokia Cotoneaster. I feel sure, 
grew there also, as it did in considerable abundance in the Maniototo 
district. One or more species of Carmichaelia also grew there. 
As illustrating the abundance of woody shrubs, chiefly in the mountain- 
gullies, I may add that when living at Cromwell in 1868 I knew a man, 
popularly known as Charcoal Joe, who had made more than a living, before 
the road was made which allowed the wagons to reach the locality, by 
burning charcoal, which he sold at a high price to the blacksmiths. A 
gully on the range across the river bore the name of “ Firewood Gully.” 
The use of scrub for such purposes quickly eradicated the larger bushes, 
and the frequent burnings by the runholders pretty well completed the 
destruction. Mr. Watson Shennan told me that when he and his brother 
first travelled over the Lammerlaw in search of sheep-country they found 
a good deal of scrub, which has since vanished. At the lower levels on the 
side facing the Molyneux it w T as chiefly manuka ( Leplospermum scoparinm). 
When camping at the Dismal Swamp on the Lammerlaw in 1865, when on a 
duck-shooting expedition with a friend, we found sufficient charred stems 
of a shrub to furnish fuel for our cooking. From the manner in which they 
lay, in circular form, they suggested to me then that they were the remains 
of some species of veionica ; but I saw nothing which had escaped the fire 
to confirm my surmise. The same cause has resulted in the diminution 
of the spear-grass ( Aciphylla Colensoi) on our mountains. It often grew so 
closely that it was unpleasant either to walk or ride through it. Sheep 
and rabbits have greatly lessened, though they have not quite exterminated, 
the native anise ( Angelica Gwgidium), which I remember seeing growing 
abundantly in the Molyneux Valley near the mouth of the Waitahuna 
Stream. The abundance of tutu ( Coriaria ruscifolia and C. thymifolia) also 
has been very much lessened, chiefly owing to cultivation. Nowadays one 
does not hear of the losses through tutu poisoning of sheep and cattle, 
especially working-bullocks, which were so frequently spoken of in the 
“ sixties ” ; but it is not owing to cultivation alone that the extent of its 
distribution has been lessened, as even on uncultivated ground much of it 
has disappeared, probably owing to burning, and possibly the treading of 
stock. 
These are some of the changes which have taken place in the last fifty 
years, but there must be many more, especially in the lowlier forms of life, 
both animal and vegetable, which my lack of scientific knowledge has 
precluded me from recognizing. The Hon. G. M. Thomson has supplied 
me with a few notes as to plants formerly to be found cn the Town Belt, as 
follows: “ The March-flowering gentian ( Gentiana GrisebacJiii) and the 
kidney-shaped orchid with the spider-like flowers ( Corysanthes macrantha), 
once common, are now rare or extinct there. Another orchid ( Gastrodia 
Cunninghamii) used to be common on the wooded portions of the Belt, but 
