Page:Through South Westland.djvu/124

60 tropical-looking plant is a lily, which has adopted this method of getting the necessary amount of light and air. Plants like these, together with the lianes which closely resemble those of ChiliChile [sic], give that strangely tropical look to the bush, which, after all, grows in a temperate climate.

There was always that upper-world of utterly unfamiliar forms calling to one as one rode. All sorts of parasites, climbers innumerable, struggling for existence among the stately pines—sometimes one of these would be so clothed with ferns and other guests, it was impossible, at first sight, to recognize the original tree. And the pines themselves are a constant puzzle to the stranger, and one seeks in vain for the familiar forms called to mind by the name. There is the totara with foliage of a brownish hue and stiff, pointed leaves; from single logs of this tree the Maoris hollowed their war canoes, seventy feet in length; and so highly prized were large trees, that they became heirlooms and even led to tribal wars. The miro is a different looking tree altogether, with larger leaves, set in two rows on the branches; its red fruit, as large as a small plum, is beloved of the bush-pigeons. They grow so fat and lazy on it, they will hardly fly away in the remote solitudes where they have not learnt to fear a gun. Sometimes the foliage resembles the yew as in the matai (black pine ), or it is merely scales as in the