BOTANY OF AUCKLAND

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 146, 22 June 1937, Page 6

BOTANY OF AUCKLAND

VALUE OF RANGITOTO.

(By J.C.)

The unique worth of ftangitoto Tsland as a sanctuary of native flora an<l a museum of geological history is one of the leading features described in an artistic little hook lately issued, "The Botany of Auckland," written by Professor Arnold Wall and Miss Lucy MCranwell. M.A., botanist to the Auckland War Memorial Museum. The main aim of the authors, as tliey explain, is to arouse and stimulate interest in the rich and beautiful indigenous plant life of the country around Auckland and to help in the effort to save it from damage and destruction. <- To those of us who have our roots in tlie land,' the Island chapter opens, "Rangitoto is very precious. The homing Aucklander finds in it the most stirring of landmarks, while the rootbound city dweller forever turns with delight to its comforting presence." There are attractive and exact descriptions of the vegetation, and there are well-justified laments for the damage that man and animals have caused in this once unspoiled place. "Fallow deer, wallaby and opossums have l>een allowed to stuff themselves with plants of exquisite beauty, in a setting more inspiring than that of any of the man-made conservatories of the world." Mentioning the largest of the trees on the lava island—the tall, erect rewarevva. mahoe, or whitewood, the mapau and the pohutnkawa up to two feet in diameter—the botanists say that- here (at the junction of the steep cone with the gently-sloping lava streams) one could ride with ease, but this openness has been induced by the disastrous feeding of wallaby on the Astelia Banksii, the main flora plant. There are lovely glades of kidney ferns not five minutes from the main wharves. Some people take bags of soil infested with weeds to plant around the shacks in this "unalienable reserve." as magpies carry oddments to their nests, in the desire to "brighten up old Rangi" in their own qpule way. (Of course; they are ignorant that the weeds are in the soil.) ' "Let us make Rangitoto a true sanctuary." is the authors' appeal, "where Nature's experiment ean march grandly on to its climax, and where we can see at least one piece of virgin vegetation and g'ory in the gifts that the changing seasons bring to the island."

"Mist of the Sky." One of these gifts is the springtime glory of the white-flowered perching plant called Kirk's daisy, which bears the poetic name of koliurangi, the mist of the ekv. These fragrant mists come to earth on Rangitoto: there are five thousand acres of lava decked with it; something to remember for the coining spring. Other chapters in this most useful little handbook of Auckland botany deal with 'the trees and flowers on the western ranges and the coastal cliffs, the vegetation of the sand dunes, the rain-forests, of the Waitakere high country where the kauri grows, the lava fields of Mount Wellington (a peculiarly interesting place to explore), and the glory of. the fern gullies. There is a useful catalogue of native plants, with their Latin and popular English and Maori names, and the localities where they are found. As might have been expected from two such writers, the book is most pleasant reading, with poetic and eloquent touches that adorn the descriptions of the plants and the scenes in which they are found. The work is not overloaded with technicalities, and is a companionable guide to the forest trees and the flowers between the Hauraki Gulf and the Tasman Sea.