NATIVE TREES AND SHRUBS

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 78, 29 September 1930, Page 8

NATIVE TREES AND SHRUBS

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —The recent excellent articles wiit■teu by Mr. B. C. Astern for your-... paper should be read with more than passing interest, not only for the information and instructions therein, but alto because they .stress the fact that our beautiful native shrubs do not receive the position in our gardens or on our hillsides that they deserve. Their beauty is to be found in the variety and even quainlness ot foliage, quite apart from their flowers and berries, for which one has to wait. I think of the veinings in the leaf of the raugiora, the many shapes of the leaves on the poroporo, the deep rich green of the heart-shaped kawakawa, the light | green of the mahoc with its silver-grey, stems, the brilliant and polished greeni oE the taupata and the wharangi, the] length of the narrow laneewood "spine" | with its rich brown . centre, and many others with their distinctive points of interest; they arc all worth watching in their growth. For the small garden it 1 should be known that almost all our. | natives stand hard cutting, and the cut- , ting improves their foliage; left alone, j many of them become straggly. In our intermediate growths we have fine trees; ngaio, wineberry, lacebarks, ka-1 raka, native fuchsia; kowhai, titoki, five-, finger ('rpatiti), kohekohe, and very many I others. Most of these also stand cutting back, but this will prevent the provision I of berries to any extent, if considering the birds. Mr. Aston mentions our slowly growing trees, which should be planted for posterity, and here.'is where we are not doing our duty in our public gardens and reserves; even when small they are worth while. What is more graceful than a young rimu? Given a certain number of berry-bearing shrubs and trees in a district, the birds will do the rest for us in quickly increasing the numbers, and here one must stress the need for destroying the birds' many enemies of the present day. In my town garden I ha\"e just now an object-lesson as to the value of birds in afforestation. For many years I have sown nikau seeds without any result but, of about a dozen palms procured from the bush two, have been bearing largo trusses of berries for the last two or .three seasons; the blackbirds have found ihem out, and in eating the fruit from them the seeds have been carried to o(W corners and dropped promiscuouslyI find that the seeds strike quickly when, lying on the surface,'for there are literally hundreds o£ seedlings appearing. They will make very slow progress for three or four years, but even then this is not planting for posterity, for those twelve palms are all fine specimens now and planted by myself about forty years ago.I desire to strongly support Mr. Aston regarding the planting of even our slowly growing trees, and I should like later, it yon can grant the space, to write urging that we in-New Zealand should specialise in our own trees. Visitors arenot given the opportunity to see them m a sufficient quantity to show' their effectiveness and to carry away a remembrance of their beauty; the kowhais are just bursting into a wonderful golden yellow— where have wo a grove or an avenue _ ot them in our reserves? In the meantime nikau ■ seedlings are to be had for the ask-ing.-I am, etc., WRmmm/ 27th September.