THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, July 3, 1860. 
216 
Travellers talk of the solitude of the forests, but there is society 
in trees which men miss on immense plains; it is on the prairie 
alone that the solitary traveller lias a sensation of loneliness, feels 
that he is in the world and does not belong to it, that he is a 
solitary wanderer on a vast oeeanless desert without landmarks. 
On the coast plains in the North Island, Ferns and Flax plants 
supply the place of Grasses. The sight of an immense district 
covered with short Fern fills the mind with an idea of sterility; 
while the long Grass covering the Middle Island plains and parts 
of the interior of the North Island, looks like hay. 
There are few flowering plants in New Zealand. Great 
Britain contains upwards of 1400, and New Zealand possesses 
scarcely 750. To compensate for this want, some of New 
Zealand’s flowers are very beautiful; and the starry Clematis 
creeping from tree to tree, and hanging in festoons from the 
branches, makes, in certain seasons, her wild forests “ blossom 
like the Rose.” 
Travellers in one part of New Zealand become only partially 
acquainted with the whole Flora. The magnificent Kauri Pine 
is limited in its growth to the country surrounding, and to the 
north of Auckland, although a few stray trees are found near 
Ivawhia, and pieces of Kauri gum have been dug out of the earth 
in the Middle Island. Formerly Kauri forests covered the land 
in the neighbourhood of Auckland, and no reasonable explana¬ 
tion has been given why new generations of trees have not risen 
up to supply their places. The Puriri (Vitex littoralis), and 
the Bohutukaua grow best in the warm north, while the Kimu, 
Totara (Podocarpus Totara), Matai {Podocarpus spicata ), Mairi 
(Podocarpus sp.), and Rata (Metrosideros robusta), flourish in 
the southern parts of the colony. The Pohutukaua is rarely seen 
away from the sea coast, or thi margins of lakes which were, 
perhaps, formerly once on the sea coast. One Palm tree (Areca 
scipida), grows in New Zealand, the most southern representative 
of the order. 
In the Kew Gardens are to be seen several New Zealand plants, 
carefully tended. Dr. Traill relates, that a New Zealander 
laughed contemptuously on seeing a dwarfed Flax plant in a 
flower-pot at Liverpool; and New Zealand settlers, on visiting 
Kew Gardens, feel that the New Zealand plants vegetating there, 
although beautiful, exhibit to the untravelled but a faint sem¬ 
blance of the beauty and grandeur of the same plants as they 
grow in their luxuriant native climate at the antipodes. 
From the Flora of the country, the aborigines formerly sup¬ 
plied many of their wants. Fern root furnished them with much 
food ; twelve kinds of fungi, almost all the Beaweeds, and many 
forest fruit3 were occasionally eaten, while epicures gloated over 
the tender shoots of the solitary Palm. From the poisonous 
Tutu berries (Coriaria sarmentosa), a grateful and not intoxi¬ 
cating drink was expressed; from Bix plants a dark dye was 
extracted, and others were celebrated for medicinal virtues. Out 
of the large trunks of the Totara and Kauri Pines canoes were 
scooped, aud the tough Ti tree furnished paddles and spears. 
The Flax plant was to the New Zealanders what the Cocoa-nut 
tree is to the Hindoos ; it was used for building and thatching 
huts, for sails, nets, fishing-tackle, plates, ropes, baskets, medicine, 
and for tying up anything requiring to be kept together. From 
the Flax flowers a honey-drink was extracted, and from the roots 
of the leaves an edible gum; Bandals were made out of Flax by 
the natives living in the Middle Island ; and Flax differently 
prepared, furnished various mats and articles of clothing, some 
being as coarse as straw mats, while others rivalled the shawls of 
Cashmere in softness. 
Already settlers draw from the Flora of New Zealand several 
valuable articles. The Kauri and Totara Pines in size excel, and 
in durability equal, Baltic Pino for houses and ship-building. 
One Totara tree, near Akaroa, measured thirty-seven feet in cir¬ 
cumference. Kauri trees are used for ships’ masts, being often 
ninety feet long, without a branch, and the large Kauri trees 
have often a girth of forty feet. There are several admirable 
woods for fencing, and barks suitable for tanning. The Pauriri, 
which belongs to the same botanical order as the Teak, rivals 
English Oak in hardness, grows twenty feet without a branch, 
and has a girth of twenty feet. Valuable and beautiful furniture 
planks are Bawn from the Rirnu, Ka'kikatea, or White Pine 
(Dacryclium excelsim), Matai, Mairi, and Manuka (Leplospermum 
scopctrmm). At the Great Exhibition of 1851, Tao Nui, a New 
Zealander, was awarded a prize for specimens of useful woods 
obtained from his native land. Cook obtained for his crow 
several useful articles, and Sir Joseph Banks discovered in the forest 
the finest indigenous fruit, the Kidtie (Fi'egcintiia .Vanksii), 
English settlers find native grass fattens flocks and herds, and 
London merchants have realised £80 a ton for Kauri gum. This 
curious substance has no commercial value when fresh, and, like 
gum copal, it is found buried in the earth on the site of ancient 
forests. Fresh gum, only found in modern Kauri forests, has a 
milky colour, and, like amber, turns yellow and transparent with 
age. Some obscurity hangs over the use Kauri gum is put to in 
the commercial world : in England it is said to be used for glazing 
calico, candles, and paper; and, in the United States, as a sub¬ 
stitute for gum copal in varnish.—( Thomson's Story of New 
Zealand.) 
INFLUENCE OF THE MOON ON THE 
WEATHEE, 
In reply to your correspondent “ Este,” the most common 
rules are the celebrated tables of the late Dr. Kirwan, which are 
printed with many of the pocket-books and annuals. 
Having myself kept a journal of the weather for about fifty- 
four years, I am one of those who believe that the moon has in¬ 
fluence over the weather. The changes of the moon in India, 
called “ monsoons,” bring rain, &c., to the very day. In our 
insular climate the changes are, of course, much less perceptible. 
Mons. Duhamel and Mons. Tualdo, were both scientific 
observers of the weather, and most people think that they were 
right, although opposed by the astronomers Sir William Her- 
schell and Sir J. Lubbock. 
There was no similarity between the spring of 1841 and 1860, 
as that of 1841 was much earlier ; and between 1840 and 1859 
there was less, for the season of 1840 was a late one and cool; 
whereas 1859 was the finest and hottest summer for the last 
thirty-five years, and the spring of 1859 was the earliest for the 
last sixty years. 
Your correspondent says nothing about the influence of comets 
increasing the heat, which has been quite apparent during the 
present century. Eclipses also seem to have an influence. 
A French gentleman has lately published notes on the weather 
on certains days of the moon’s age ; but even if this be correct as 
to the south of France, it is not at all likely to act in the same 
manner in the climate of Great Britain. 
Mr. Whistlecraft, of Thwaite, Suffolk, has published the best 
observations I have ever read on the climate of England, and his 
statistics are admirable. An epitome of these will be found in 
his “Weather Almanac” for 1859 and 1860, to which I refer 
your correspondent “ Este.” I believe the almanac for 1860 is 
out of print.—H. W. Newman, Hillside , Cheltenham. 
GAEDENING NEAE NICE. 
In the neighbourhood of Nice Signor Bonaventura, whose 
surname was certainly a superfluity, since nobody ever addressed 
him by it, explained to me sundry matters connected with the 
culture of the Lemon trees, which constituted the principal 
revenue of the estate. It is certainly a graceful harvest, gathered 
every two months all the year round; the 500 trees in the 
garden having yielded upwards of 100,000 Lemons in less than 
ten months, and 20,000 or 30,000 more being looked for before 
Christmas. These are sold at from 40 to 50 francs per 1000— 
a franc is equal to lOtf.— to traders, who either send, them in 
cargos to England and the United States, or else retail them 
at large profits to fruit dealers for home consumption. The 
Lemon tree requires great care, and is manured every three 
years with woollen rags—a process likewise applied in many 
parts of the Riviera to the Olives, which certainly attain to a 
size and thickness of foliage not seen elsewhere. They showed 
me some Lemon trees which Tvere being prepared for the 
reception of the rags. A circular trench, about a foot deep and 
two feet wide, is dug round the trunk, and in this the rags, 
mostly procured in bales from Naples, are laid; a curious 
assemblage of shreds of cloth gaiters, sleeves of jackets, bits of 
blankets, horserugs, and so forth—the whole conveying an un¬ 
comfortable idea of a lazzarone's cast-off clothes. A quantity 
not exceeding twenty pounds English weight is allotted to each 
tree, and then the earth, which had been displaced for their 
reception, is thrown over them, and they are left to ferment 
and gradually decompose. Some agriculturists throw a layer 
of common manure over the rags before covering them with 
earth, but Signor Bonaventura said many experienced persons 
contended it was unnecessary. Great precaution is requisite to 
