UNIQUE FLORA

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 210, 4 August 1934, Page 12

UNIQUE FLORA

NEW ZEALAND’S HERITAGE

INADEQUATE APPRECIATION

In the course of his Arbor Day address at the Wellington Boys’ College, this week, the Governor-General reminded his audience of New Zealand’s rich heritage in its trees. To the tree lover coming from the Old Land the most marked distinction between the trees of Great Britain and those of this Dominion was that the former were mostly deciduous (that was to say they lost their leaves in winter) and the latter were nearly all evergreen, His Excellency said. Moreover, to an extent unparalleled in any other territory of similar area in the world, New Zealand trees were her own exclusive property. They were true “New Zealanders,” for at least 89 per cent, of them were to be found in no other part of the globe. No country in the world had been more luxuriantly clothed by Nature than New Zealand. In few, if any, had the beauty and permanent value of her natural vestment been so inadequately appreciated or treasured by past generations of its human population. The more the naturalist pried into the mysterious treasure-house of her hitherto unspoilt natural vegetation the more thrilled with wonderment and delight did he become. Nature with a bounteous profusion had indeed robed this highly-favoured land with a mantle of verdure which was of most remarkable beauty, and in this vegetation there were several species of trees and other plants which for graceful form, beauty of flower, delicacy of foliage, or imposing stature, were unsurpassed anywhere in the world. What country could display within the same area woodland products comparable in these _ respects with rimu, pohutukawa, puriri, totara, black tree-fern (or mamaku), or the noble kauri ? If it be considered only from the utilitarian or commercial standpoint, the New Zealand scenery (which was -enhanced materially by the beauty of the native trees) was one of its most valuable assets, for it was a magnet which already attracted many visitors from overseas, and the tourist traffic which is stimulated was bound to increase to such proportions that it would be in the future one of the major business activities of the country. They should do all in their power to keep these scenic reserves and national parks, so far as was still practicable, in their virgin and natural condition, for their interest and attraction were greatly diminished when exotic plants and animals were introduced into them. As one travelled through this naturally beautiful land one could not but regret that commercial competition was responsible for the frequent erection of advertisement hoardings, which were incongruous and repellent blemishes on the loveliness of the landscape. ITe earnestly hoped that. 't would gradually come to be recognised, in view of the growing resentment among Nature lovers and motorists against these scenic disfigurements, that the path both of patriotism and of commercial wisdom lay in their discontinuance, at least outside the confines of towns. GLORIOUS PECULIARITIES. Lord Bledisloe then went on to refer especially to some of the peculiarities of . New Zealand vegetation, including the forestal equipment, which helped to make it intriguingly distinctive by comparison with that of other parts of the world. New Zealand, fortunately, could not boast climatically of extremes of heat and cold; in spite of occasional inexorable gales its climate was most equable anti healthgiving. But in plant life it revelled in extremes. It had the largest tree in the world in the kauri (one specimen on the Tutamoe Range, near Dargaville, with a girth of. 100 feet, having contained 31,416 cubic feet of timber) and the smallest pine in the world, the pygmy pine (Dacrydium Laxifolium), of subalpine areas, the height of which was normally about 12 inches, but in exposed sites no more than two. It had the world’s largest lily in the cabbage tree (Cordyline Australis-), a specimen of winch at Taihape proved on measurement to be 18ft. in girth. It had in the erroneously called, but very lovely, “Mountain Lily” (Ranunculus Lyallii) the largest buttercup in the world. In paha.u-kalca-po (Dawsoniana Superba), which was confined entirely to New Zealand, it had the tallest moss in the world, attaining, as it did. a height of two feet or more. In the sea-serpent kelp (Macrocysfis Dubenii) it possessed the largest sea-weed in the world, which sometimes reached to a length of 200 ft. or 300 ft. It had in tlie mahoe (Melicytus ramiflorus) a violet which was a tree, and attained a height of 30ft., and a forget-me-not (Myosotidinm nobile) with leaves as large as those of rhubarb. It had, moreover, speedwells or veronicas which in England were modest little blue flowers barely showing their heads amid the herbage of the pastures, but which here in New Zealand were not only an enormous family of numerous species with a range of colours varying from white to dark purple, but m the form of shrubs and trees (known as “Hebes”), reached a height of 40ft. Amongst the daisies, it possessed trees which were 30 feet high, and the -wood of some of them was so remarkably durable (rendered so by a fragrant oil) that the Maoris called them “Ake,” which meant “for ever” or “eternal.” Included among the daisies was the beautiful New Zealand Edelweiss (Leucogenes) which was found in no other country, and reached the consummation of its beauty in the Lion’s Foot (Leucogenes leontopodium) with as many as 15 flowerheads congested into a densely compacted cluster surrounded hv 10 to 20 lovely snow-white woolly bracts, the leaves of the plant with a surface of silvery down forming a rosette at the base of the flower-stalk. A VARIETY OF FAMILIES.

Not content with the world-renown-ed ovine products of her farms and hill stations, New Zealand possessed “Vegetable Sheep” (species of Raoulia and Haastia) to be found on the shingle slips of the South Island mountains. These plants formed large hummocks which were sometimes six feet long and three feet wide. They had a thick, stout woody main stem and powerful roots which penetrated the underlying rock crevices. These. branching stems were covered at tlieir extremities with very small, woolly, tightlypacked leaves, and forming, as they did, a tight convex mass exactly resembled at a distance recumbent sheep. The most distinctive of these plants (Haastia pulvinaris) was found only in New Zealand, and was one of the world’s most famous vegetable freaks. New Zealand’s bean crop was not confined to her vegetable gardens, for amongst her most lovely trees she revelled with justifiable pride in her resplendent leguminous Kowhai (Sophora or Edwardsia) with its dazzling golden blossoms, which in favourable situations could boast of a height of 50 feet, with a bole three feet in diameter. Its nectar was beloved of the tui (the New Zealand nightingale), and its ornamental timber, were it not for the exhaustion of its supply for fencing posts and firewood, would be of high value for decorative furniture. In the carrot and parsnip family (Umbejliferae). New

Zealand could claim the world’s most curious and uncomfortable specimen in “the Spaniard” or “Speargrass” (Aciphylla), some species of which were six feet high and bad hard stiff leaves terminating in sharp spines, capable of penetrating the thickest sartorial integument and drawing human blood. The numerous clusters of its flowers were ensconced behind a veritable “clievaux de frise” of these spines. In the turnip and cabbage family (Cruciferae) there was a genus found only in the mountains of the South Island of the Dominion and known as Notothlaspi. One variety (Rosulatuni), popularly called the “pen-wiper plant” was very peculiar. Its plentiful leaves were like a chemist’s spatula and clothed, when young,, with whit© ribbonlike hairs, and imbricated to form a rosette, from which sprang a thick stalk carring numerous sweetly-scented flowers. Another plant of the same family (Lepidium oleraceum), which was strangely unbeautiful, possessed what was known as anti-scorbutic properties and was historically. famous as having been used by Captain Cook as a cure for scurvy amongst his sailors. ITe gained great" credit among navigators for the comparative freedom. of his crews from this devastating malady, which added so materially to the perils of long-distance voyages in the eighteenth century. The little weed called groundsel (Senecio), took the form here of 20 different shrubs of considerable size and extreme beauty, both of leaf and of flowers, which varied in colour from white to dark yellow. They would be a source of joy and cheerfulness in any English garden shrubbery. Among other peculiarities of the New Zealand native bush were the numerous trees —18 in number, apart from the shrubs—whose adult and juvenile foliage were markedly different from each other. They included the Lancewood (or Horoeka), the Matai, the Pokaka, the Kowhai, the Kahikatea, and the Kaikomako. The Lancewood was the most extraordinary of all, having four differentlyshaped leaves at different stages of its growth. UTILITY TREES. “No country yields firewood which gives out a greater heat than New Zealand,” said the speaker. “Stated in order of calorific value (when in a dry state) are the Maire (Olea Cunninghamii), the Puriri (Vitex lucens), the South and North Island Ratas (Metrosideros), the Manuka (Lept-o-spermum), the Broadleaf (Griselinia littoralis), the Kowhai (Edwardsia), the Taraire and the Tawa (Beilsclimiedia), the Matai, and the various species of Native Beech (Nothofagus). Among the trees which provide useful dyes are the Hinau (Eleaocarpus dentatus), yielding a black dye, and the Taneltaha (Phyllocladus trichomanoides), a red one. Among tlie plants used by the Maoris for extracting perfumes are the Ruakawa, the Taratu (lemon-scented ‘Matipo’), the Mairenau (Phebalium nudum), and the Kohepiro (Melicope ternata), and amon" those used by them medicinally are the Koromiko (Hebe salicifolia), used in cases of dysentery, the Mahoe (Melicytus), the Rata, and the Rangiora (Bracliyglottis), each employed as a dressing for wounds, the New Zealand Flax (Phormium tenax), and the Kawakawa (Macropiper excelsum),, alleged to be a remedy for toothache.

His Excellency said he hoped his short sketch of some of the “recordbreakers” and peculiarities and properties of their native vegetation would suffice to whet their appetites, and to stimulate their imagination and spirit of inquiry. But let not their contemplation divert attention from the giants of the forest, their country’s pride. For a combination of beauty, refined grandeur, and commercial utility the “national arboretum” of New Zealand had no rival in the world. Unfortunately, by comparison with other countries similarly endowed, there were all too few of its leafy jewels scattered over the landscape, adorning the gardens, or flanking the highways. It was his profound and confident hope that as the result of the annual observance of Arbor Day there and elsewhere in the Dominion this, defect might in days to come speedily be made good. New Zealand would be materially enriched thereby.