NATURE NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18357, 24 March 1923, Page 1 (Supplement)

NATURE NOTES.

PLANTS IN ARTHUR'S PASS.

BY J. DHUMMOND, J.L.S., 1.1.*.

Interesting native plants were Been byMr. J. Armstrong, Sydenham, Christchurch, a talented and experienced botanist, when he visited Arthur's Pass in January. The most conspicuous was a parasite which is commonly known as the scarlet mistletoe, but which he, more botanically, refers to as the beech loranth. "It was in full bloom," he writes, "and its flowers lighted up the dark beech forests with bright scarlet. Its parasitism is a mild type. Having abundant foliage it can elaborate its own sap, simply drawing its supply of fluid through the roots and sap-vessels of its host. Neither the parasite nor the host, apparently, does any injury to the other plant, the two living together in harmony. It is somewhat strange to find this parasite thriving in our cold mountainous district, as the genus Loranthus, excepting New Zealand species, is almost exclusively tropical. The beech loranth seems to be more plentiful in Canterbury than in any other part of New Zealand. There must be hundreds of individuals of it in the Bealey Valley alone. Few efforts have been made to bring these gorgeous plants into garden cultivation, although they are among the most beautiful shrubs known. An effort was made to cultivate a loranth in the Christchurch Botanic Gardens many years ago, when a bush of the beech loranth was grown on a native beech. It was a large specimen and it bloomed freely for many years, but was destroyed under a mistaken idea that it was injuring its host. Any amateur gardener -who has a fancy for this splendid shrub and has a native beech tree, may establish it by grafting it,, or by sowing the parasite's berries in notches on the bark."

Sundews, which belong to a group that Darwin dealt with in his work on insectivorous plants, were much in evidence in the Pass during Mr. Armstrong's visit, growing in wet places among moss. Three species were represented. The prettiest, he states, is the spath-leaved sundew, whose leaves form tiny rosettes almost covered by bright red hairs, each hair tipped by a small globular or oblong gland • which secretes a viscid fluid. Hie writes of these remarkable plants: "The glandular hairs are very sensitive. When touched by an insect or a grain of pollen, or almost any small thing, they become inflexed towards the centres of the leaves, and enclose the insect or the other object that has rested on the hairs. Darwin and other observers showed that the captured insects are digested by the glandular hairs and help to nourish the plants. They may be cultivated easily in pots of moss kept quite moist. As there are many thousands of sundews in our mountains, they must take great numbers of insects every year. One species in Artrur's Pass, stenopetala, is much larger than the spath-leaved species mentioned before, has larger roundish leaves on long Arcturi, has strap-shaped leaves and still fewer haira. The flowers of all three species are white.

Orchids are somewhat scarce in the Pass at the time of Mr. Armstrong's visit in January. In wet moss, he saw a pretty, slender little species, with light green leaves and somewhat small white flowers, Caladenia bifolia. As this species usually has two leaves, while other species of Caladenia have only one leaf, some botanists have removed it to another genus, but Mr. Armstrong states the many individuals of bifolia he saw on the Pass have only one leaf. Mountain asters, Celmisia, were plentiful and were blooming in unusual abundance. Ten or twelve species are represented in the Pass from the tiny glandulosa to the largest-known jaaj aaaui smoo3 qoiqM 'Baasuoa 'sapads high and has long silvery leaves. In his notes on -these- plants;. Mr. Armstrong writes : "Great numbers of the* mountain, asters' splendid white flowers in the Pass were gathered by visitors from town. As Celmisia is the most beautiful family of New Zealand plants, is it regrettable that few members of the family now are seen in our public and private gardens. It it not difficult to cultivate them if a little attention is given to their natural requirements."

A grey and white petrel, with a long wedge-shaped tail, belonging to New Zealand, was described in this column last month as "onu of the rarest shearwaters in the world." Mr. R. A. Falla, Calliope Road, . Devonport, states that his experiences seem to show that it is not uncommon on the northern coasts of New Zealand at certain seasons. 'It is known to ornithologists as the long-tailed shearwater, or the New Zealand shearwater, or as Bvller's shearwater, the name Mr. Falla uses. He writes : "I am inclined to think that the supposed .'■ rarity of this species is due to its limited distribution, and to lack of competent observers at the places it frequents.' I picked up the remains of an individual in Auckland Harbour in 1916. I have found the remains of two other individuals ' on the West' Coast of the North Island. My mosjfc interesting experience with the species was during a yachting cruise from Auckland to Whangaroa and back in January, 1922. I am familiar with the appearance of most of our commoner petrels on the wing, when they are reasonably close, and I kept a record of the species I saw. iTorster s shearwater is much the commonest, ranging in large flocks from Rangitoto to the Cavalli Islands."

Other birds noted in Hauraki Gulf on the northern trip were the flesh-footed shearwater, the long-winged (grey-faced) fulmar, the white-faced storm petrel, the black petrel, the giant petrel, and a- few other, , not identified with certainty. Mr, Falla continues : "Off the Hen and Chicken Islands I saw a sombre shearwaterthe New Zealand mutton bird — few allied shearwaters, and several whale birds. When I was approach - Tutuikaka Harbour, at" dusk, several, large shearwaters, whose flight was new to me, were seen. The following day when the yacht was sailing from Tutukaka to Whangamumu, inside the Poor Knights, they were : seen again, but always some! distance from the yacht. The following morning, we ran into a huge flock resting on the water off Cane Brett. I had no difficulty in recognising them as Buller's shearwaters, as they did not take flight until within a foot or two of the boat. We had no permit to obtain specimens, nor any firearms on board for that matter, and had to content ourselves with a close view of the birds. They may be recognised by their size, the unmistakable 'puffimw' bill, the long wedVe-shaped vel-vety-brown tail, contrasting with the mouse-grey upper coverts, the dark cap, and the conspiciously white underparts."

An opinion is expressed by Mr. Falla that the long-tailed, or New Zealand, shearwater, is semi-gregarious, as the whole flock he saw kept together and settled again on the water, which was quite calm at the time. Later, when a light or moderate wind was blowing, they were seen flying ', about individually, in an isolated manner. "The flight,' Mr. Falla concludes, "consists of a few measured wing-strokes and a great deal of sweeping, and gliding in half-circles, resembling albatrosses rather than the smaller petrels. When these, shearwaters are in flight, the brown markings of the wings and back form a conspicious design like a wide inverted W. Numbers of them were seen some days later off Flat Island, in the Cavalli Group. Mv notes on our return trip record them all the way from Whangaroa to Tiri Tiri, where a single bird was seen. They seemed most plentiful in the neighbourhood of the Poor Knights. It is likely that they will be found to nest there. : - They also nest, no doubt, on Moko-Hinou. Mr. O'Connor,' of Wellington, and Mr. Drew, of W annu V noted the species when they went north, in the Tutanekaiin August or September last, but. on account of the rough weather, could not obtain specimens. This ■ certainly supports the theory that they remain to breed." ; < . *' :