INTERESTING NATIVES.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 258, 31 October 1929, Page 9

INTERESTING NATIVES.

FINE BOTANICAL GARDEN.

IN UNIVERSn / GROUNDS.

AMAZING RESULTS IN THREE

YEARS

It is a standing disgrace to Auckland that it has no botanical garden in which can be found a representative collection of the native flora, but it is interesting to know that while there is official neglect in this matter, the Auckland University College now possesses a very fine collection of New Zealand plants and shrubs—thanks to the initiative of Mr. T. L. Lancaster, M.Sc;, lecturer in botany at the college. The collection has been planted in the grounds surrounding the new Arts Buildings. The public is familiar with the shrubs growing along the Princes Street front, but at the back and sides of the building there are even more interesting specimens. With Mr, I Lancaster as director and Mr. Harding as gardener and curator, a wonderfully effective showing 'has been made since 1926, when the first plants were put in, and to-day there are over 250 species growing and flourishing. That is about one-sixth of the flora of New Zealand. Attractive Blooms. Several of the plants and shrubs are in flower at the present time, and one can readily realise the surprise of botanists that more natives are not found in cultivation in private gardens. For instance, there are several bushes of the native flax, Linum nionogynum, which is a near relation of the flax from which linen is obtained. The leaves are very much alike. These bushes are a mass of white flowers, each about an inch and a half, across, bell-shaped, and most , striking. As the Linum stays in flower for several weeks, it would be an ornament to any garden. A dainty little shrub is the "wild daphne," its botanical name being Pimelea longifolia, which ! bears numerous heads an inch and more across, and would always attract atten- i tion. Few but botanists would recognise : it as a native. ... Then there, is the poroporo (Solanuni i heterophylla) with dark green leaves, i surprisingly varied in shape, and blue ' flowers with yellow centres, similar in ; character to many other of the Solanum :

J tribe. In the pioneer days people used to buy the poroporo in kitfuls from the -Maoris and make it into jam. The fruit looks rather like the Cape gooseberry and the jam has much the same taste. > Perhaps most striking as to flowers, just now, is the red kowhai, which thrives splendidly on the volcanic banks in front of the college. Two bushes of red tea-tree in Prince's Street, and finer in colour than any other bushes in Auckland, being a rich scarlet, almost cardinal. The parent came from NewPlymouth. The Veronicas. Much surprise is expressed by people who are attracted by a low-growing plant with leaves like a beech, beai'ing numerous panicles of pretty little flowers of a very delicate shade of heliotrope; they are always amazed to find that it is one of the veronicas— Veronica liulkeana —a very charming native with a hideous name. At the back of the building Mr. Lancaster has a "veronica garden," where may be found a wonderful variety of this very varied plant, ranging from one with quite a broad leaf to several of the whipcord family, whose branch and leaf have shrunk into a wonderful imitation of a very thin, tightly-plaited bit of green whipcord—hence the name. A peculiar specimen of the Cordyline family in Princes Street, just now coming into flower—a huge cream panicle, 3ft long—is described by Mi\. Lancaster as a hybrid, and in appearance certainly looks like a compromise between its cousin, the "cabbage tree" and a longleaved Cordyline. Change of Climate. In a stroll round the garden ■ one notices a young kauri, a Pisonia (the bird-catching tree), the whau, or .native cork, in flower, several specimens of the Grisilinea lucida, which seem quite happy on the ground, though in the bush it is an epiphyte, forming part of the mass up a rata that looks like a bird nest, and many others. Specially interesting from a naturalist's point of view is it to see the handsome toii (a handsome broad-leaved cordyline) from the highlands of the Urewera growing contentedly in. Auckland's warm climate, but more surprising still is. it to see some of the real highlanders, the hard-bitten things from the Southern Alps, which seem to enjoy a spell in latitude 37 south, where one says good-bye to snow. ; : . ... There are dozens of other most inter-- ■ esting things, including.a few foreigners; such, as the Paraguay tea-plant, and.!the Chinese candle-nut, avid the grounds are an object lesson,-which Auckland's rulers might well imitate.

One plant which will 'surprise Aucklanders is the stinging nettle, which is well furnished with the means of/scarifying anyone unfortunate enough to fall foul of it. Although a true New Zealander, the nettle is fortunately not in evidence up this way, but down Palmerston North it is quite common in the bush—and well do Palmerston Nortk . lads remember it. Another "spiky" individual is tht "wild Spaniard," which can be seen in two forms in the grounds. The Spaniard is a resident of the mountainous country of the South. Armed with sword-like leaves the Spaniard will flourish where less ferocious things would soon come to grief. As there.could not have been any natural • enemies in the clays before the Europeans came, with sheep and cows, botanists are rather puzzled as to why the Spaniard was provided with such defences. But the Spaniard is only one of many surprises that New Zealand's very varied flora has for the botanist from other lands.