Contributions to Natural History.

Opunake Times, Volume III, Issue 146, 26 November 1895, Page 3

Contributions to Natural History.

[By R. E. Edmunds.] About the Ist of October the " Wairaugi " bushes (" puka-puka ") aucl also that humble member of the order Rosaeaa, by colonists called " the Lawyer," were both looking as if dredged over with powdery white globules—their myriad flower-buds, the latter soon expanded its whitish five petal'd flowers ; but • were very fugitive—scarcely lasting a week; the former is now (Oct 27) in full bloom —a most graceful object; each bush spouting, frothing, bubbling out its feathery arcs of cream-colored flower-spikes, like a little steaming geyser. On every spray thousands of tiny perfect florets " waste their sweetness on the woodland air." Looking at the ' Lawyer '>one is reminded that New Zealand has no native rose. Indeed, as Humboldt long since asserted, there is no rose in the whole Southern ' Hemisphere; and in all the wide tropic regions, but a single species : Rosa Montezuma, in the mountains of Mexico ; and that grows only at an elevation of 9000. feet higher than the * peak of Egmont—but no subject is fuller of enigma than the geographical distribution of plants. Why, for instance, is there not a single species of pine in the Southern Hemisphere ? Not that the Equatorial heat prevented its migration southwards, for the genus abounds iu the West Indies, and the road was open by the Isthmus of Panama into South America And why, for instance, is there no Araucaria in New Zealand, although we have them " to right of us " in Chili (A. imbricata); have them " to left of us" in Queensland (A. Bidwilli), have them "in front of us," in Norfolk Island (As escelsa) Norfolk Island " line" ; which is now becoming so common by introduction among us, that (without some such imperishable record as this, Mr Editor) the Pacificans of the near future, will come to think them indigenous ! As occurs in . so many other cases, the aboriginal will be dwarfed by the immigrants, for this tree lifts his lordly crest to a height of 223 ft; and no native tree climbs up to this, although Solander credits the Rimn with 213 ft (?) But in re3pect to height North America takes precedence; the dust is completely knock'd out of the Old World which long boasted of a white pine in Silesia in Prussia, as a wonder, at the height of 158 ft; while the Pinus Douglasi or Oregon Pine brushes the clouds at a height of 400 ft, which is almost as high* as Salisbury Cathedral —the highest in England—altho* this is left far behind by the spire of that of Strasburg, which overlooks the Rhineland from an eyrie of 494ft—probably the highest point reached by human architect, for the Great Pyramid of Egypt got tired at 480 ft—so tired, indeed, that it has gone back 30ft, by the removal of the castingstones since. Palms long considered the loftiest forms of vegetable life, come only second to coniferous trees. A Wax Palm of the Andes flourishes its fronds 170 feet above the ground ; and an areca, relation to our Nikau (our only palm) gets up to 170 ft. But New Zealand perhaps, tops the record of the world in tree-ferns ; the scaly stems of some cyatheas in this island lifting up the fine fret-work of their dancing fronds to a height of nearly 50 feet.