CLUB LUNCHEON TALK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18552, 9 November 1923, Page 12

CLUB LUNCHEON TALK.

The monthly club luncheon talk took place at the Lyceum Club yesterday, when a most interesting address on New Zealand flora was given by Mr. J. W. Poynton In introducing the speaker, the president, Mrs. W. H. Parkes, touched on the wonderful beauties of" New Zealand native trees and said that in the not-too-distant future she would very much like to see our streets planted with some of these trees, which would give to the city a freshness and beauty that could never pass away. We in New Zealand, she said, in our inadequate appreciation of these bauiiful gifts of nature, fail to. realise the full measure of the beauties of our birthright. Mr. Poynton said that in New Zealand there are four distinct classes of vegetation—the primitive or < indigenous, the Australian, the tropical, and the sub-Antarctic. In # Chili and Tierra del Fuego we find the instances of the same types of vegetation, and in South America we find the fuchsia, as well as beech forests like our own, which shows that this vast stretch of land was once one continent, of which New Zealand was a part. In the same way there are remains of tropical vegetation, showing that the continent of New Zealand once stretched far north. In New Zealand there are 14 types of taxads out of 40 in the whole world and to this class belong the kauri, matai, totara and rimu. These trees belong to an ancient lineage, and one of their characteristics is that their flowers are white, which is a peculiarity of ancient vegetation, when the wind was the pollencarrier, the bright colour of the flowers not then being necessary to attract the insects. By the discovery of fossils by Scott's expedition it was found that in Antarctica, a continent 10 times the size of New Zealand, the vegetation was closely related to our own, which showed that it once had a temperate climate. Where there was now no trace of vegetation there once 'Bad flourished verdant forests. Most of our own trees are evergreens, an exception bemg the kowhai, of which tfieie are two kinds, the partly deciduous and the wholly deciduous. In New Zealand we have the nikau palm, which is the only palm out of 1500 palms grown in a latitude of 42deg. south. Another icharacteristic of New Zealand flora is Che puriri, whic resembles a tropical plant in producing flowers ano ripe fruit at the same time. North of a line drawn from Napier to New Plymouth we find much of our vegetation tropical. The kauri' is closely connected with the monkey tree, which was . found "by the Spaniards when they first went to South America, and is also related to the Norfolk Island pines. It is one of the noblest trees in the world, and is famed for its wonderful timber. At the conclusion of his address Mr. Poynton showed some specimens, among which was a leaf of the puka, which is one of the rarest trees in the world, and at one time was sought by visitors to New Zealand. The celery tropical pine was another specimen from the bark of which a valuable pink dye was secured. Before the war a large quantity of the bark was exported to Germany for the dye, which was used in the manufacture of pink gloves* as it was not in any way affected, by the perspiration from the hands. A' third specimen was the veronica, of which there are 100 specimens.