19

C—ll

flora, Podocarpus Hallii, Libocedrus, Dacrydium Bidwillii, Blechnum discolor, Coprosina Colensoi, C. Banksii, Nothopanax anomalum, Elceocarpus Hoolterianus, Polypodium novce-zealandice. Where most luxuriant the undergrowth is about 8 ft. tall, C. ftetidissima, C. tin id folia, Nothopanax Colensoi, N. simplex, and beech saplings being the tallest growth, but these latter are most abundant where the illumination is strongest, when they easily become dominant and are taller. The trees themselves vary in distance from one another by from a yard or two to as much as 20 yards, but this latter is exceptional. Their crowns mostly meet, but light conies through in fair abundance. The ground is usually covered witli mosses and liverworts, into which the feet sink, making walking rather laborious. There are many fallen trees, some much decayed, and on them in the lower part of the formation plenty of the creeping fern Polypodium novce-zealandice, its dark-greun deeply-out fronds a foot or more in length given off here and there from its long, thick, scalecovered rhizome. On the forest-floor are colonies of the broad-leaved grass Microlcena avenacea; a great abundance of Astelia montana; large breadths of Hymenophyllum mull i fill inn ; the shrub Styphelia fasciculata, not erect as usual, but closely hugging the ground ; Myrtus pedunculata, of similar habit; Luiv/riaga, its wiry stems creeping through the mosses; the grass-like leaves of Libertia puh-liella, 4 in. or ."tin. tall; tussocks occasionally of the sedge Gahnia piniri flora, the leaves 3 ft. long; large colonies at times of the umbrella fern (Gleichenia Cunningham/it). As the altidude increases, Nothofagiu cliffortioidet seedlings put in an appearance, Coprosina cuneata becomes abundant, and an occasional young plant of Libocedrus Bidwillii and I'oi/ocarpus Hallii appear. Finally N. cliffortioides becomes dominant, and a new zone begins. The following from my notebook describes a piece of N'. Menziesii forest which occupies a deep gully on the east of Tongariro between the Waihohonu and the Oturere, and which is rather a conspicuous object in the landscape. The quotation shows how the above-described and this latter piece of forest resemble one another, the one owing its presence to its southerly position on Ruapehu, and the other to the shelter of a gully enclosed on all sides by steppe. " The forest stands in part upon the hilly slope, and descends in part into the rather deep gully. The tall trees, 60 ft. or so tall and sometimes 3 ft. in diameter, are altogether Nothofagus Menziesii. There is a much oloser and richer undergrowth than in the mountain subalpine forests of N. cliffortioides. This, together with the short branching of the tires and their numerous and still shorter lateral branches on the trunks, which are more or less moss-clad, gives a distinct stamp to the formation. The forest-floor is rarely bare, but covered frequently with a strong growth of HymenophyUum multifidum and especially large quantities of Polytrichum dtndroides. Besides the usual shrubs, certain subalpine-scrub shrubs enter into the formation— e.g., Aristotilin fruticota, PhyUocladus alpinus, and Olearia mtida (which in this region is rather a forestplant than one of the scrub. " The undergrowth may be man-high, but generally it reaches to about one's middle. The sparsely branched Coprosma fatidissima is dominant. Young plants of Nothofagus Menziesii are almost equally abundant. Suttonia divaricate and Nothopanax simplex are quite common. Myrtus pedunculata, not found in the Nothofagus cliffortiodes forest, is fairly abundant. Coprosma parviflora, C. microcarpa, and C. cuneata are frequent, especially the first-named. There is some Drimys colorata. Hub us austral is is present where strong sunlight can penetrate, and occasionally has thick, rope-like stems. There is a good deal of Nothopanax Colensoi, some Aristotelia fruticosa, Griselinia littoralis, and Pittosporum Colensoi, and an occasional young plant of Veronica salicifolia. As for ferns, they are especially abundant in the gullies, where Polygtichum vestitum, with short trunks, and Hypolepis millefolium are plentiful. There is also a small amount of the crape fern (freptopteris superba). "The trees are not very close, except where they are saplings. The old trees are tall and of considerable diameter. The bark of these is furrowed, as opposed to the smooth bark of younger trees. The leaves are bright-green, shining, small, and inserted closely together on the flanks of the final twigs, which are arranged in a somewhat flabellate manner. Besides mosses and lichens, there are frequently HymenophyUum mats on the trunks, and Asplenium flaccidum depends in close, drooping masses from the lower boughs. Many of the old trees are in a state of decay, and there is much fallen debris on the ground. In short, the forest is at the present time undergoing a natural process of rejuvenation." (/.) The Toothed-leaved-beech (Nothofagus pusca) Forest (Photo. No. 12). At an altitude of 2,100 ft. or rather more, to the south and west of Ruapehu, the magnificent taxad forest of the Waimarino gives place to a zone in which the toothed-leaved beech (Nothofagus fvxca) is the dominant tree, though a great deal of N. Menziesii is mixed with it. At first a large percentage of the shrubs and small trees of the taxad forest are present, but with increase of altitude certain species vanish or become scarce — e.g., Melieytus lanceolatus, Rapanea salicina, Olea lanceolata, Melieytus ramiflorus, Boheria sexstylosa, Coprosina grandifolia, Beilschmiedia tawa, I'ndararpux ftmuji'neiix, Dacrydiiirn eupressinum, Aristotclia raccmosa, Fuchsia excorticata, Nothopanax arboreum, Parsonsia heterophytta, Astelia nervosa, lilt rim urn lanceolatum, Hypolepis tenuifolia, Dieksonia tquarrosa, I), fibrosa, I), lanata. The Nothofagus fusea trees, at first frequently exceeding 80 ft. in height and 6 ft. in diameter, become gradually smaller in size, though it is remarkable how at 3,000 ft. and more altitude many still are of large dimensions. The tender green of the leaves and the open character of the foliage, giving it a lacelike appearance, mark the physiogomy of this formation as quite different from that of those already described, while the thick and buttressed trunks (Photo. No. 18), with their flaking and furrowed bark, still more accentuate the difference. There is a distinct second tier of shrubs or small trees with slender stems, frequently mossclad, and short rather scanty lateral branches, and whose general direction is put of the perpen-