RECORD BREAKERS

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 28, 2 August 1934, Page 13

RECORD BREAKERS

NEW ZEALAND FLORA

STUDIES IN EXTREMES

DELIGHTS OF BOTANY

Tho main address at the Arbor Day ceremony at Wellington College yesterday afternoon was given by his? Excelloncy tho Govcrnor-Goneral (liord Blcdisloe), to whom his large audionco of adults and boys listened with tho keenest of interest. In tho course- of his remarks, his Excellency said:

"Those towns of New Zealand which havo, an outstanding reputation for their beauty generally owe it to1 tho physical features of the landscape, with which Naturo has generously endowed them. Wellington, for instance, but for man'a past unaesthetic vagaries, would be one of tho world's most lovely cities. In some towns, however, whero Nature

has.been less bountiful, local authorities ■* mhT public-Spirited private citizens have planted trees and shrubs in abundance, to tho optical, meutai, and ■spiritual refreshment of residents and visitors-alike. But, making full allowance for these patriots and tho arboreal outcome of their practical enthusiasm,! tho 'tree sense'—the genuine- love of trees and the consciousness of tho gap in life's happiness and profi*: which tho lack of trees involves—is far from boing fully developed in this Dominion. We are assembled hero on Arbor Day tp evoke this tree sense, to, arouse the dormant enthusiasm for trees in tho general community of all classes and occupations in this Dominion and its capital city, and particularly to awaken in the youth of tho nation a lovo of trees, a pride in, them as a valued national possession, and a feeling of responsibility in regard to their planting, their preservation, and their protection against vandalism and senseless waste. And through trees, the noblest, stateliest, and most obviously arresting of tho products of. the soil, lot us hopo to inspiro somo at least ,of tho human denizens of this highly endowed territory with the zeal to explore the mysteries, and test the delights, of a more extended 'field of botanical research. ' ■' . "TRUE NEW ZEALANDEES." "To tho treo lover coming from tho Old Land the most marked distinction between the trees of Great Britain and those of this Dominion is that tho former are rqostly deciduous (that is to say, they lose their leaves in winter) and the latter are nearly all evergreen. Moreover, to an extent unparalloled in any other torritory of similar area in the world; New Zealaud 's trees are her own exclusive property. > They are truo 'New Zealanders,' for at least 89 per cent, of them are to be found in no other part of the globo. No country in the world.has been more luxuriantly clothed by Nature than New Zealand. In f ow, if any, have the beauty and permanent value of her natural vestment been so inadequately appreciated or treasured by past generations of its human population. Tho more that tho naturalist pries into the mysterious treasure-house of her hitherto unspoilt natural vegetation tho more thrilled with wonderment and delight does ho become. Naturo with a bounteous profusion has indeed robed this highly-favoured land with a mantle of vorduro which is of most remarkable beauty, and in this vegetation thero are several species of trees and other plants which for graceful form, beauty 'of flower, delicacy of foliage, or imposing stature,! ;aro [unsurpassed anywhere in the world. What countiy. can display within tho same area woodland products comparable in these respects with your rimu, pohutukawa, puriri, totara, black tree-fern (or mamaku), or the noblo kauri? If it bo considered only from the utilitarian' or commercial standpoint, your scenery (which is enhanced materially by the beauty of your native trees) is one of your most valuable assets, for it is a magnet whichalready attracts many visitors from overseas, and the tourist traffic which it stimulates is bound to increase to such proportions that it will be in the future one of the major business activities of the country. Do all in your power to keep your scenic reserves and national parks, so far as is still practicable,'in their virgin and natural condition, for their interest and attraction are greatly diminished when exotic plants and animals are introduced into them." "INCONGRUOUS BLEMISHES." "As one travels through this naturally beautiful land one cannot but regret that commercial competition is responsible for tho frequent erection of advertisement hoardings, which are incongruous and repellent blemishes on the loveliness of the landscape. I earnestly hope that it will gradually come to be recognised; in view of the growing resentment among Naturo lovers and motorists against these scenic disfigurements, that tho path both of patriotism and of commercial wisdom, lies in their discontinuance, at loast outside the confines of your towns. "In appealing to you—on Arbor Day, 1934 —to love trees, to study trees, to,plant trees, and to preserve trees (especially those which harbour and attract your all too scarce but.melodi-' ous and beautiful birds) I vrant, to stimulate your imagination—in these days of 'records' (on racing track, on cricket fields, in the air, and elsewhere) —by referring especially to some of the peculiarities of your Now Zealand vegetation, including its forestal equipment, which help to mako i.t intriguingly distinctive by comparison with, that of other parts of the w ; orld. 'New Zealand, fortunately, cannot boast climatically of extremes of heat and cold: in, spite of youv occasional inexorable gales its climate is most equable and health-giving. (Incidentally, 'Windy Wellington' can boast of the lowest recorded, death-rato of any city in the world.) But in plant lifo it revels in extremes. It lias the largest tree in tho world in tho kauri (one specimen on the Tutamoo Range, near Dargavillc, with a girth of 06ft, having contained 31,416 cubic feet of tirnbor) and tho smallest pine in tho ■world, the pygmy pine. (Daerydiuui Laxifolium), of sub-alpino areas, tho height of which is normally about 12 inches, but in exposed sites no moro than two. It has the world's largest lily in tho caMiago-trco (Cordyline Australis), a specimen of which at Taihapo proved on measurement to bo 18ft in girth. It has in tho erroneously called, but very lovely, 'mountain lily' (Eanuhculus Lyallii)tho largest buttercup in the world. In pahau-kakapo (Dawsonia Superba), which is con^ fined entirely to Now Zealand, it has tho tallest moss in the world, attaining, as it does, a hoight of two feet or°more. In the sea-serpent kelp (Macroeytis Dubenii)it possesses the largest sea-weed in the world, which sometimes reaches to a length of two or three hundred feet. It has in the mahoe (Melicytus ramiilorus) a violet which is a tree, and attains a height of 30ft, and a forget-me-not (Myosotidium nobilo) with leaves as largo as those of a rhubarb. It has, moreover, speedwells or veronicas which in England aTO modest little- blue flowers barely showing their heads amid the herbage of the pastures, but which hero in New Zealand arc not only an enormous family of numerous species with a range of colours varying from white to dark purple, but, in the form of shrubs'and trees

(known as "Hebes"), reach a height of 40 feet. ' VEGETABLE SHEEP. "Amongst the daisies, it possesses trees which aro 30 feet high, and tho wood of some of them is so remarkably durable (rendered so by a fragrant oil) that, tho Maoris called them "Ake," which means "for ever" or "eternal." Included among the daisies is the beautiful New Zealand edelweiss (Lcucogcnes) which is found in no other country, and Teaches tho consummation of its beauty in the lion's foot (Leucogenes leontopodium) with as many as fifteen flower-heads congested into a densely-compacted cluster surrounded by ten to twenty lovely snowwhito woolly bracts, the leaves of tho plant with a surface of silvery down forming a rosette at the base of tho flower-stalk. Dr. Leonard Cockayne, our hit© deeply-respected neighbour and world-famous botanist, regarded this, I am told, as New Zealand's most beautiful plant. It is, moreover, a mem ber of the daisy family which furnishes New Zealand with tho strangest curiosity of her nativo vegetation. Not content with the world-renowned ovine products of hor farms and hill-stations, she possesses 'vegetable sheep' (species of Kaoulia and Haastia) to bo found on tho shingle slips of tho South Island mountains. These plants form large hummocks which are sometimes six feet long'and three feet wide. They have a thick, stout woody main stem and powerful roots which penetrate the underlying rock crevices. Their branching stems are covered at thoir extremities with very small, woolly, tightly-packed leaves, and forming, as they do, a tight convex mass, exactly resemble at a distance recumbent sheep. Tho most distinctive of these plants (Haastia pulvinaris) is found only in New Zealand, and is ono of tho world's most famous vegetable freaks. "New Zealand's beau crop is not confined to her vegetable gardens, for amongst her most lovely trees she revels with justifiable pride in her resplendent leguminous kowhai (Sophora or Edwardsia) with its dazzling golden blossoms, which in favourable situations can boast of a height of 50 feet, blue a bole three feet in diameter. Its nectar is beloved of the tui (our New Zealand nightingale), and its ornamental timber, were it not for tho exhaustion of its supply for fencing posts and firewood, would boN>£ high value for decorative furniture. In tho carrot and parsnip family (Unibclliferac), New Zealand can claim, without boasting of the fact, the world's most curious and uncomfortablo specimen in 'the Spaniard' or 'spear-grass' (Aciphylla), some species of which aro six feet high, and havo hard stiff leaves terminating in sharp spines, capable of penetrating the thickest sartorial integument and drawing human blood. The numerous clusters of its flowers are ensconced behind a veritable 'chevaux de frise' of theso spines. In the turnip and cabbage family (Cruciferac) there is a genus found only in the mountains of the South Island of this Dominion and known as Notothlaspi. One variety (Bosulatum), popularly called the 'penwiper plant' is very peculiar. Its plentiful loaves aro liko a chemist's spatula, and clothed, when young, with white ribbon-liko hairs, and imbricated to form a rosette, from which springs a thick stalk carrying numerous sweet-ly-scented flowers. USED BY CAPTAIN COOK. Another plant of the same family (Lcpidiuui oleraceum),', which is strangely unbeautiful, possesses what is known as anti-scorbutic properties and is historically famous as having been used by Captain Cook as a euro for scurvy amongst his sailors. He gained, as you aro no doubt aware, great credit among navigators for tho comparative freedom of his crows from this devastating malady, which added so materially to tho perils of long-dis-taneo voyages in tho eighteenth century. The littlo weed called groundsel (Seneeio), with which wo feed our caged canaries in England, takes the form here of 20 different shrubs of considerable size and extreme beauty, both of leaf and flower's, which vary in colour from white to dark yellow. Thoy would be a source of joy and cheerful' ness in any English garden shrubbery.

"There are some oversea visitors who, if it were physically possible and the climate favourable, would be enviously eager to transfer great chunks of your wild hillside shrubberies into their domestic gardens in Europe or America, but who, nevertheless, are inclined to speak disparagingly of your native bush, when seen en masse, as 'sombre' or 'monotonous.' But surely those who use theso terms are blind to the gleams of verdant brightness imparted to the bush by the presence* of tho ngaio, the laccbark, tho tawari or the whau, with their light-green leaves and white flowers, the karaka, with its golden,, plum-like, poisonous fruit, the 'lemon-scented matipo,' with its bright glossy, fragrant leaves, or the rangiora, with its lovely Icaf-veining and masses of scented, cream-white flowors, not to mention tho graceful tangles of the nativo clematis or the silhouetted stately beauty of the rewa-rewa (or honeysuckle tree), the nikau palm, the cabbage tree (especially when in blossom), or the 'ponga' tree-fern (Cyathea dealbata), with its silveiy-white frondunderside and the warm nut-brown colour of its trunk. They forgot, too, * or havo never seen, the seasonal crimson glory of the ra'ta and pohutukawa (or Christmas tree). ' FOB THE BIRDS. "If you plant trees and shrubs, whether in your gardens, the environs of your public and scholastic buildings, or along your urban and suburban roads, always remember tho bird?, and select some varieties at least which attract them with their nectar, their fruit, or their congenial shelter. Aniong the trees suitable ■ for nectar-loving birds (such as the tui, tho bell-bird, arid the white-eye), are 'rata, pohutukawa, kowhai, native fuchsia, and flax (Phoi'niium tcnax), not to mention such exotics as gums and single camellias. Among those which yield berries for small and largo birds alike, aro the eoprosma (grandiflora, robusta, lucida, and rctusa known popularly as 'taupata'), fivefingcr (Nothopanax), and mako-mako (Aristotelia); and among thoso bearing fruit for larger birds — especially pigeons—are karaka (Corynocarpus), hinau (Elaeocarpus), pig-eon-wood (Hedycarya), puriri (vitox), titoki (Aleetryon), and inahoo* (Melicytus). Tho troo which, par excellence, attracts, birds in winter, although not a native, is tho treo lucerne. Incidentally the latter, by absorbing nitrogen from the air through its root nodules, improves the soil, and, if underplantJd with indigenous trees, will aid in converting its environment into nativo bush. Coprosmas are valuable as birdfeeders, for they grow rapidly and soon bear berries. If a braekoninfosted slope adjacent to nativo bush is loft unburnt, it is found that tho coprosmas will shoot up, overshadow tho fern, and kill it."