Page:Through South Westland.djvu/157

Rh new supports, and the most unlily-like spray of greenish flowers. These are succeeded by oval, pointed berries of a brilliant scarlet—making up for the inconspicuousness of its blossom. The most reviled, and at the same time one of the most beautiful, of the climbers is the “bush lawyer.” It is armed, on stalks and leaves alike, with barbed hooks, by which it climbs, clutching everything within reach and orming dense jungles. Hooked to one’s clothes it rends them to pieces, for it is almost impossible to extricate anything that gets into its clutches. The Maori name “Tataramoa,” means a “heap of prickles.” The beauty of its light-green leaves and sprays of yellowish flowers, makes one almost forgive the barb-like spines—as long, that is, as they are not imbedded like fish-hooks in one’s person. Later on it will hang out clusters of red and yellow fruit like minute raspberries, but of small value to the hungry wayfarer. There are four well-known species which climb to the very tops of the trees, but Rubus parvus is found only in South Westland at the head-waters of some of the rivers. It is one of the few New Zealand plants which puts on autumn tints, and is a beautiful object when its leaves turn to bronze and gold. Another tree which sheds its leaves is the ribbon-wood. Once the track led us under a grove of these trees—a very fairy-land of beauty as the sunshine glinted G2