BEAUTIES OF THE BUSH.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19779, 28 October 1927, Page 8

BEAUTIES OF THE BUSH.

COLLECTION AT PUKMOHE. HATIVE TREES AND SHRUBS. GROWING OBJECT LESSONS. UNDERTAKING AT HIGH SCHOOL. Most New Zealanders are veil acquainted with the beauty of the New Zealand bush, in its delightful mingling of stately grandeur with graceful ".harm. Few, however, know much of the wide variety in frond and flower that go to make up that beauty, and it is with a view to stimulating in the young New Zealanders under his charge, and others, a knowledge and love of what their own country has to offer in the way of native trees and shrubs, that Mr. W. F. J. Jdunro. director of the Pukekohe Technical High School, has established an arboretum of New Zealand species at the entrance grounds of the school.

Mr. Munro himself first took an interest in this study when a pupil at the Otago Boys' High School, and during the past five years he has given expression to the knowledge he has gained by patiently collecting from all parts of New Zealand many specimens of native plants, and establishing them in orderly and artistic array in prepared areas bordering the drives to the school. In a considerable number of cases, artificial shelter has been necessary for a time,- to enable the young plants to make headway, but now nearly all are looking virile and healthy, and making good progress. Naming of Specimens Neat name-boards front each plant, giving its popular name, its scientific name, and the family to which it belongs. For instance, there is the pohutukawa, known to thousands of Aucklanders by that name. Fewer know that it belongs to th* myrtle family, while only the learned in these matters know that its scientific name is Metrosideros tormentosa.

Then there is the nikau, or New Zealand palm, Rhapalstylis sapida, end the kauri, Agathis Australis, of the pine family. The name-board against the climbing clematis, which is trained to a tree-fern trunk, tells the observer that this wellknown New Zealand flower belongs to the buttercup family. Even the coffee family has a representative, named cosprosma rotundifolia.

The trees and shrubs present wide variety in shade and shape of foliage. The taupata and, to a lesser degree, the tarata, or New Zealand lemon tree, have foliage of a very light shade, the leaves being almost white, touched lightly with a greenish yellow. This contrasts with the deeper green of a vigorous kahukahu tree nearby, while again the more sombre green of the North Island rata represents perhaps thi< other end of the scale. Bright Display of Bloom. The ramarama is a shrub with Email embossed leaves, greenish brown, the leaves having the appearance of having been pressed into billowing formation. A plant with a fairly large, thick, green fleshy leaf, is the olearia insignis, of the daisy tree family. It grows in spreading formation close to the ground and is said to have a wonderful daisy-like flower. The whau tree appears to have the largest leaves, they being about the size of a jnan's hand. Of the flowering trees ana shrubs at present in bloom, the poroporo, bearing a bright displa> of heliotrope flowers, attracts attention, while nearby the crimson manuka is just bursting into a mass of red bloom. The Pinelea longifolia, of the daphne family, is bearing white flowers, •jt'he bowhai shrubs, one with red flowers and one with white, are now shedding their bloom. They are distinct from the kowhai tree, which grows much taller than the kowhai shrub and is far more sparse in foliige. In a separate bed, Mr. Munro has established over 50 varieties of New Zealand veronicas. These are native shrubs which vary almost as widely as could be imagined in shape and form, but which are allied by having the same characteristics in the arrangement of the leaves and the formation of the flowers. In shade, the floweis vary widely, some kinds of veronicas bearing white flowers, others blue, others purple, others heliotrope, and others pink.

The veronica bed is backed by a young hedge of pittosporum crassifolium, otherwise the New Zealand pitch tree, a" characteristic of which is that it produces sticky berries. Incidentally the kohukohu tree is also described as being resineus and aromatic.

Proposals ait now iu hand for the estabiishment of a fernery at the school, in which varieties of New Zealand ferns are to be established.

The arboretum already forms a very interesting collection of New Zealand plants, and, with additions from time to time, and the inclusion of a fernery, it bids fair to make the school a mecca for Kew Zealanders interested in the flora of their own countiy.