NATURE STUDY.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 27 December 1924, Page 16

NATURE STUDY.

NOTES ANI> COMMENTS. ;' - (“Hon.”) The manuka. or tea-tree, (ieptospermum scupanumj is one of tne most common shrubs of New. Zealand, it is generally, lound growing on. poor land, with not ;a great deal of sub-soil. Like the gorse or the broom, ib will soon become a serious pest if allowed to grow unchecked. To realise what a hold, it will.get on the country, one lias to gO' to the Rotorua district or the Great Barrier Island to see what a. menace it niay become: Althougu it has overgrown a vast amount of land in the last-named island, it has been put to. useful purpose as firewood. There the. shrub grows to quite Vargd dimensions,'and the cutting of it and the transportation or the timber as firewood to the city of Auckland gives a good deal of employment. When dry it . makes splendid fuel. In the olden days the Maoris used it for various purposes.: Being extremely, tough, paddles and spears were made from it. in the construction :of their whares nmnuka played an important part, the framework • generally .being formed of emsely packed manuka. Picnic parties often use it; foe bedding purposes when cutaping . but. - A very good fence may also be constructed, of manuka. The foliage being exceedingly tenacious, acts as a temporary shelter interlaced with wire .until' a liv© .hedge planted alongside becomes self-supporting. •

; The manuka shrub bears a pretty white floorer, and when acres of' it are in bloom presents a glorious sight. The qrimson variety,' which is to be seen growing in' many gardens, is still more beautiful; It is related of the, red manuka that, not long after the shrub was discovered a tree of it was grown in the. Old Country and a spray of blossom was exhibited in - the Royal Horticultural Show as a specimen plant. It was awarded the Royal Horticultural Society’s medal in this class.

The medicinal properties of the manuka are well known, and it is said to alleviate cases of dropsy. A prescription recommended by a herb doctor of New Zealand was to make ari; infusion,, by placing a handful of manuka, flowers and twigs in a pint o: boiling ivater and drinking half a np lull about six times a day. It is said that the plant contains oil of cinnamon, but this has..been; disputed by some boia ills Is. It really does have an aroma simian- to cinnamon. V 1

; : Reference, was ‘ made in a foregoing paragraph .to the hold; that man uka wi 11 obtain if allowed to grow unchecked like the gorse and broom. From a nature point of view, 'the acres of t.: cc in and ghfse which .travellers are able to ■’■witness'/: ..when journeying by train between ' -Manutahi . and Wanganui is indeed sa glorious sight, though a great ; menace to the farming cdmiiiunity. The whole countryside in places is a blaze of yellow, and in .the blooming period more forcibly demonstrates honv nature will assert' herself if. allowed to go on undisturbed.- Another instance in this respect was once presented to this 'writer koine: years’ ago when on a ride into the hinterland near the Patea. river. It/was; at the . period- when the ragwort was in full bloom. Here again the country, appeared to be 1 enyeloped in a golden.: 'carpet, a l really glorious sight also, but 1 ike the gorse and brooih has- proVed . a veritable nightmare to .the farmer.

Where land has .been cleared* • in sheltered, 'situations a few years afterwards we generally find. one. tree in particular that , becomes well established. That is the iriahoe, or it is perhaps better, known as the white wood, •so called owing to the white washed appearance of its branches.; it belongs to; the. lime' tree.;'family,, and is praotically evergreen.” But it is in the spring and* early summer.;, that the lovely green appearance becomes so;conspicuous. .The timber is of very little use, biit it is said that the Maoris in the early primitive days used it for the purpose of producing combustion, and so were able to - kindle a flame through its agency. They made a grove in a dry piece of mahoe and by judicious rubbing with a; hard piece of wood produced: a fine dust which would ‘ in the end kindle into a flame. It entailed a great deal of patience and labour, but the Maoris in those days had plenty of tints on their hands and were imbued with a spirit of perseverance, as instance, the laborious' ta<fk they under-, took in the conversion of .rough pieces of hard stone; into implements of usefulness. and; for fighting purposs.

It is astonishing how well many of cur New Zealand trees flourish in other parts of the world. The writer once saw one of the finest’ specimens of the nikau palm growing in the Melbourne botanical gardens that one could wish to see. The cabbage trees also do well, as the following clipping from a southern contemporary testifies. . It says that the Graphic recently produced a charming picture of New Zealand cabbage trees of the Southern Hemisphere. It represents a garden in the northern isle of Arran. The letterpress beneath the ‘picture is inaccurate in some respects, 'out at least it indicates what can be grown on the shores washed tr the Gulf Stream. “London •has had its tropical speli in October,” it is said, “but many people' will be surprised to learn that there are some little tropical Gardens of Eden so far north as the isle of Arran. The climate there is of such a mild and salubrious nature that the late Rev. Dr. David Lnndsborougli, of |vilmarnoc*k, thought it a likely place *to sow some seeds '.•.lnch- his brothers had sent to him from Australia and New Zealand. There were comparatively few failures in his experiments, and, as the ’phoijo shows, there.are now some fine speimens of Australian palm (Cordyline australia) whoa lia'.e stoed the test of the years. Tne' place is-' Whitefarland, Arran, bat • nctl.e very fine- collection is at ‘Cromla’ Co-rie, the manse of the Rev. -James B.rown. Besides the Australian variety of palm tree, there are eucalyptus, the bush fern of Australia.,: the Chnsan Fan palm, several varieties.o,f camellia, and a host of other plants one usually expects to see in greenhouses ; but here, strange to say, they thrive in the open air without protection.”

'file king of the New Zealand forest, the kauri, is rgarded as not only indigenous but peculiar to New Zealand, and although a tree known as the Queensland kauri exists in Australia, it is not the trne kauri. It was mentioned bv Dr. J. M. Steward? Bishop Melanesia, on his return from the Solomons, that a forest of kauris had b en discovered in the island.of Vanikoro, which is the Solomon Islands •uoiuido xru OAig ;oxi Pin on dor[siq aqx ‘r.muq puejeoz oil’; r[;i.u uosucduioo ui ‘£pfßnb s;i o; su ;nq ' ‘puxqsi oxt; no oujua ’leiojouim-. o jo .xaqxxxi;' ;o qoaj jo suoxqxui o.xr axoq; quua pa;uuu;so sf %\ '-;33j £;joj jo ;q“ioq v o; ui?ayo sxuojs puq pm; jocioxu -mp ux pun uoaos xi3oAv;oq O.XOAi S3B.XJ oii; jo ouiocj xr r .xoquii; oqx gtn;oqjßxu o; qgOAi oq; xrngoq puq ‘spxnqsj jo '£eg oxi; xxto.x; papeq xuoqA\ jo jig augoi; -OGjd ‘xiouxq.xoAV jo pueq jigxus r. pxiu jeqrax; aq; pixu. ox poioxuo.ia noaci sxur Auedtuoo UGijßj;sny uy •a;Btojoo;ojd

, A till, a. visitor to the Featherston bowling green for many years, has again put in an appearance this year (says the AVairarapa 'Age). The bird is seen almost daily, and is comparatively tame'. ■

"W riting to a local ornithologist, the Royal. Society for . the Protection of Birds (the president of which is the Duciiess of Portland, and among the officials of which are included some of England's most riote«. men), says:— “One point has struck some of our members as perplexing—the, exhibiting of rare and disappearing species apparently eolleetd by those leagued to protect and -perpetuate the remaining species of your charming and unique avifauna.” Tne inadvisability of this exhibition and the danger of its being the means- of attracting 1 foreign collectors was energetically pointed out by many when, the collection was being made. . : \ .-;•/;

! Two shootists, out in a northern district to get anything moving that came their way* fired and brought down' a earner pigeon. Attached to the bird was the message: “Mother dying, come quickly.—Sylvia.” . V -

Ihe official. organ of the Now Zeat-; land Bird Protection Society says thatmuch 'Confusion, has been inf evidence •in the past as . to the rights /sportsmen have under their licences;. and it often -happens that many of those most desirous of acting in a’ sportsmanlike manner have , only a hazy idea of the conditions embodied in the Animals Protection Act, 1921-22, a copy of which is always, easily procurable. To remedy this. a summary of the Act is to be issued with all future licences by the internal Affairs Department. This summary will contain a list of all protected birds, and a plain English statement .of the most vital requirements of the Act . (This is a step in the right direction and will,, no doubt, be appreciated by license holders.

Investigations .by Professor J. Malcolm, Otago University, and Mr T. B. Hamilton j show (says the North Otago 'limes) that the paua', usually spelt pawa, one of. the commonest shellfishes in. New Zealand, used by Maoris a$ food, as well as for ornament, has a fairly high , food value. They state that an adult paua', weighing about 200 grammes, probably is as much as one person would' wish to eat for one meal. . It would yield 5 grammes of fat, ,4 to 5 grammes of inorganic, matter, 2.5 .grammes of glycogen, and about 28 grammes of protein, and there would be about ten grammes of substance of lincertain food value. // The paua is comparatively rich in Inorganic salts. / .'-/■-/ !,/;;' (From Australasian, j . In conversation with an acquaintance who years ago. did a good deal of rabbiting as well "as fox-hunting in’ Rivenna he. mentioned an interesting incident/ One day fie sat down for a moment iri the shade on- the bank of a small creek, and as he sat there two sniaii pebbles in quick succession hit him on. the head, his first thought being that some- friend . was Having a joke with him. On looking around he saw f just above,' him a black snake squirming up the bank;- and: displacing - the’ < loose .pebbles which had struck him. Having, an axe in hisi hand' at the time; he cut the snake clean in two , with a blow, and in a moment five frogs which the snake, liatl swallowed wdre/ hooping about as lively as though nothing had unusual had occurred,; and were . soon back in the water again. :'

. Concerning the supposed appearance in Gippsland streams of trout / which were to be a cross between rainbow aiid brown, some' further information is available; Billy’s Creek, in the Moi well- area, "is the stream particularly. referred to. One angler mentioned that' he ; has caught;42 trout in che. lower ;, (section of the stream, 1 and. every one was undoubtedly a brown trout. A fishing mate; mentioned varieties farther up in the hills, siderable lenghts of the stream are, awing to the thick scrub, inaccessible. His first,trip. to the stream—and probably no.t more than half a dozen men have., fishfed ; it/rresulted in a., bag’-of. six fish—three rainbows with only the dorsal fin" spotted and the other, fins pink, and three assumed to be hybrids, which were " heavily spotted with tainbow markings, lint liad : fins similar to the brown trout.

.On the subject of hybrids Mr. McGregor remarks that the: first trout he ever caught was •in the Campaspe. it appeared to be a 21b. brown trout, yet had a distincfc'pink.band down'eachside. The fish was considered peculiar, and among those who saw it was Mr. J. Benson, a Kynetoiv angler.

Fur farming with ‘’possums is being discussed in Tasmania, where Mr. Robert. . Hall, j a well-known biologist, tiAs brought ihe subject the notice of the Government, and a. biU which may be. introduced to Parliament this session is being prepared! One difficulty which control in farms may be able to correct is. that 'possum fur ;S at its best in the breeding season, so. m this there is much waste, Bomb of the. suggestions made in Tasmania appear tc. be rather fanciful, but the island has. advantages 'lor fur farming. One of these, is the .possession iin such numbers of the meianiistic form—the black and brown 'possum, the lustrous dur, of- which is so very attractive. Naturalists have not been able to separate it as a species from the common silver-grey opposum. A distinct and well-estabiished. species in the large, short-e.lred ’pb,ssum is, however, found •in many- of the islands of Bass Straits, lhe Tasmanian ringtail, too, is. p separate species, w.th a better fur than ours.

'■ experience as well as that of C. N. Annec.r, says Donald McDonald in the Australasian; the name of ‘Kangaroo mouse’ ’ was given to any cf the native marsupial mice without much regard to their style of progression. The Jerboa, sometimes called the kanearoo rat, was well known, but _ never in the ,eastern part of Australia have ; l seen or hoard cf an animal as small ns an o-dinary mouse to which the name “kaiiop-rod -mouse” might be given, as it is in t-om.-> parts ot Western Australia. Mr. A. G. Bplam gives a very interesting description of this tiny creature in his “TransAustralian Wonderland.”

Scientifically it is known as Hapalotis Mitcbelli. L:ke the kangaroo it has two. long and strong hind legs, while the forearms are short and weak, rt stand': erect,upon its hind legs and bounds along in exactly the same way as the kangaroo, covering about. 3ft. in each ■•cap. For so small a creature th-t is a tremendous leap. If a kangaroo covered the same space in proportion to size each spring would be about 60ft. The underground burrows o< "the kangaroo mouse seem to be most ingen io"sly-plannedi The entrance to ihe original burrow is lightly closed, and in tunnelling they come close enough to the surface to form one or two more entrance''. !f the burrow is dug' out or scraped out by a dingo, the little kangaroo mouse generally escapes bv scratching -«away the light covering from the original entrance, which not being in "ye would never be noticed. Sir Baldwin Spencer saw many of these dr’Titv little creatures on bis Central Australian tcurs.”