Native Wild Flowers.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 285, 2 December 1933, Page 2 (Supplement)

Native Wild Flowers.

" SUMER IS ICUMEN IN."

(By L. M. CRANWELL.)

The cuckoo calls very insistently— how can you stay indoors? Ho has whistled liis friend the "Penny Doctor" up and dtfwn the lulls, and now he has found him again, as you can tell by the gossipy greeting into which his song now trails. November has passed with wliau and kiekie, and the last reluctant blossom of tlie kowhai. Yes, spring has gone, though tardily, since the purple ground orchids are so late this year. As you grow older you will remember this last month of spring by the scent of the cabbage trees. All three lowland olios have been splendid; indeed, it is difficult to say which has been loveliest. Commonest of all is the buxom ti-kouka; then there is the shorter ti-ngaherc, which always seems to wipe an errant lock out of its eyes as it pleads, "Grow 1110 and cherish me; I'm untidy, I know, and I have 110 poise, but the fragrance and the whiteness of my flowers will

, delight you ere summer comes." Lastly, there is the low grass-like species, found only in the North; its dainty blossoms are still a joy. The Friendly Island. Have you ever had an island all to yourself, an island made friendly by wild (lowers and innumerable birds? I have just spent five days on such an island. It rose out of deep blue water, and the golden flags of giant sea weeds encircled it. Flax and cabbage tree bloomed on ils shores, and there the birds dwelt < "'"side the frontiers of fear. Little \\/.. :-ds buried themselves in shingle as yon approached, and 'burly tuataras watched you go about your business with a cold, sceptical s.tare. There were flowers every whereI—white1 —white orchids and aristocratic renga lilies, koromiko, supplejack, native cucumber, and, gayest of all, sudden splashes of pohutukawa, bearing enough nectar to madden kaka, tui and bcllbird. What delight it is to see them emerge, sticky and pollencovered from the various flowers. Then they swoop adroitly through the scrub to their nests, raising the hair from your head by their swift low flight. One cannot do justice to bird or flower in the wild state. How tame it seems now

to have to sit and write "the coastal iris is a beautiful plant"—if only I could send you out in quest of it with a few suggestions and directions! Tukauki, tlie iris, will not linger long, so let us seek it now. It is easy to recognise even without flowers. The leaves are long, rigid and grass-like, often with a bright yellow or reddish midrib. They are arranged in fans, as in the flax, but tlicy are, of course, much smaller' and daintier. Here we stumble on it at last, a great open, knee-deep patch, shadowed by koliekohe, karo and pohutukawa. In this rather dim setting every slender bronzy flowerstalk stands out proudly, every exquisite ivory petal shows to perfection. And there are hundreds upon hundreds of these blossoms, spread out like white butterflies on the wing. Where these might be compared to butterflies, the small iris of hill and mountain-top (Libertia pulchella) is like a soft, fluttering moth. Both are hardy, and our big iris makes a brave bid for its place in the sun after the busli is opened up, but it is nearly always chewed and trampled flat. I have seen patch after patcli suffer in this way. Oh, you clobbering wild pig, and you great bearded goat, you have ruined our irises! Isn't it a pity that the plants must nearly always bo the losers? They aro like, blind children in their helplessness.

It is cheerful to learn that this iris does well in gardens. There is. a line plant in the University grounds at present, and another ill the Loder collection in the Domain is just setting its fruit on 50 flowering steins. The plant grows readily from both seeds and rooted pieces.