Page:Rambles in New Zealand.djvu/70

 hashed pig's-head and some cold potatoes to carry, and taking a kit in my own hand, set off in the direction of the water-course in order to botanise. I found the red-flowered variety of the flax (Phormium) growing in the wet places almost as far up as any plants except veronicas. Perhaps this sort would be more advantageous to grow in England than the large common kind. The fibre is equally strong with that of the pale-flowered sort, which is not the case with another species I found afterwards growing on other mountains, which, however, I take to be a distinct species; not a mere variety, as the seed-vessels were hanging, instead of upright. I found also a perfect yew about two feet high. The only perceptible difference, except in stature, was that the seed was not quite so much imbedded as in the English yew.

Barometer at encampment 26$19/20$, thermometer 45, at nine, cloudy—mizzle.

I waited several hours collecting specimens and seeds, but afterwards recollected many plants which I had left behind, thinking I could get them nearer home. It will be a lesson to me hereafter never to omit securing a specimen when I first see it. I have lost dozens of new plants by omitting to do so, thinking at the time that I should be sure to get finer ones as I went on. There was but little forest in the line of march to-day; the little clumps of wood which were met with here and there contained chiefly araliaceous plants, strongly resembling those on the coasts, but really different. In the water-courses were Totaras and Kaikateras, as the natives said; but I think they were different trees from those so called by Europeans and the natives of the coasts. A Dracæna was very common, which grew into a tree thirty feet high, two feet diameter. If I can manage to get this tree to England, it will make quite a new feature in ornamental plantations. There are three species here which would grow