SOME NEW ZEALAND NATURALISTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3327, 19 December 1917, Page 69

SOME NEW ZEALAND NATURALISTS.

By G. M. Thomson, F.L.S

X.-AYILLIAM COLENSO.—(Continued.) Colenso was the first European to cross the Ruahine Ranges; but,, as already narrated, his first attempt was unsuccessful. Those who make ascents of our mountains to-day and who cross wide areas of country on foot, do so under very easy conditions as compared with those which prevailed when the bush was still quite unbroken and there was no settlement. The food difficulty was the chief one, and those who made light of this and trusted to pick up food as they went along, or wlio hoped to get through some difficult piece of country without much trouble, generally found themselves mistaken.

Colenso's second attempt at the Ruahine was made from the Patea side, and was undertaken in February and v March of 1847. After leaving Wait'angi he made for the Mohaka River, and ascended it towards Titiokura. Here he found two species of Uncinia or barbed sedge (U. leptostachya and U. rubra). The latter species is not uncommon in mountain districts in the South Island; but is only recorded in the North Island from the localities where Colenso found it. He says of it: "This species often gave quite a red hue to some parts of the dry plains of the interior when viewed from a distance, so that, at first, I wondered what it could possibly be that made them look so strangely red." His route lav across to Lake Taupo, then over the high country near Tongariro and across the upper waters of the "VVanganui River, and over long stretches of broken country to Patea. His native guides knew the tracks very imperfectly, and though the season was early autumn, the party struck extremely cold and stormy weather on the high country, and were in imminent danger of starvation. Colenso was much struck with the apparent insensibility of the Natives to cold—a thing which has struck many an observer. He says: "The Natives appear to be almost insensible to cold, the majority of them being but pooi'ly clad, each in a single loose shoulder mat; and yet they go sauntering about the village in the snow, bare-footed, bare-legged, and-bare-breached! of course; or they sit down talking together in an open shed, with scarcely any fire, having half of their bodies uncovered. I noticed, also, some little children, "who, leaving their garments (each having only a loose harsh mat) in their huts, came out and frolicked naked about the village, regardless of the snow and sleet. At this time they were all living on fern root, which the children were incessantly roasting and hammering; yet they were all healthy." Colenso, in his account of this trip, refers to a visit made to the same localities some years later, when he saw the parrots—presumably kakas —busy with the flowers of the kowhaij licking out the honey with their big brush-like tongues without injury to the young fruit. He was a true naturalist, not a mere collector, but one who went through the country with his eyes open and his faculties on the alert to observe and note all he saw. The return journey was made from Patea over the top of the Ruahine, when the party encountered great hardships, but succeeded in reaching Te Aute with a large collection of botanical and zoological specimens.

Colenso's keen observational faculty v was somewhat marred by his lack of scientific perspective, and he tended to become a species maker, largely because he attached too much importance to detail, and •was apparently unable to grasp the importance of variability within a species. Let me take.three examples from his account of this 1847 trip "I here found a species of Grammitis which Sir Joseph Hooker has included under Polypodium australa, but which is, in my opinion, very widely different from all the states I have seen of. that plant—as well as from my Gramnutis ciliata (a rare and littleknown fern, which I also believe to be specifically distinct). —although in the Handbook Sir Joseph Hooker has also included this, and others also, with it." Another: "I was not a little surprised to-day in walking through open fern-land to find the fern covering the ground to be a species of Dicksonia, which grew there like the common bracken. It extended for some distance, and presented a novel appearance. From its habit and manner of growth, etc. I named it D. unistipa; but I find .Sir Joseph Hooker has considered it to be the same as D. lanata. To this fusion, however, I cannot agree." Still another instance: "Near Tauno I obtained an elegant fern, a

Gleichenia, which grew thickly together, and of uniform appearance and height in beds or patches on the low, wet banks of the stream. This novelty pleased me much, and I named it G. hookeriana; • but I find Sir Joseph Hooker has placed it as a variety (alpina)—e.g.. G. dicarpa. From that 'old and well-known Australian species I still think it will yet be found to be specifically distinct." Now in these three cases quoted—and I could multiply such statements from Colenso's writings bv the score—he is dealing with one specific form, and desires to make it into a distinct systematic entity. But Hooker was in each ca?e examining Colenso's specimens along with others drawn from all parts whero the species was to be found, and he had to define his species so as to include a large range of varieties, which, however, merged into one another to such an extent that it was difficult to draw up sharp lines of demarcation. The difficulty of defining a species may be illustrated bv the way in which systematic deal with them. Men like Hooker and Bontham, who dealt with vast collections of specimens drawn from all regions, where the plants under immediate consideration were to be found, tend to generalise their species and make

them include many varying forms. Men who .deal with only the individuals of closely allied structure tend to particularise and to manufacture many species. Thus Hooker, in his "Student's Flora of the British Islands," unites all the varieties of the bramble or blackberry under one species—Rubus fruiticosus; other British botanists, who have devoted their attention minutely to the group, make no less than 24 species and 61 varieties. Colenso sent most of his early collections to Kew, and these proved of extreme interest and value in working up the flora of the country. Of flowering plants, 21 species .were named by him, and have been upheld by more recent systematists. On the other hand, no less than 385 of his species have been disallowed. Twenty-two species belonging to different genera of New Zealand flowering plants and ferns have been named Colensoi in honour of him, while one fine plant allied to the lobolias has been called Colensoa after him. But he did not confine his attention to this branch of botany alone. An analysis of the Handbook of the New Zealand" Flora shows extraordinary activity in collecting the lower cryptogams during his travels and later residence in this country. Out of 349 mosses described, no fewer than 159 species Avere sent by Colenso. Of hepaticce, or liverworts, he sent 106 out of 230 species. Some 233 species of lichens are described, and of these Ooleviso sent 128, many of those described being from his materials alone. Still more remarkable is the record of fungi sent to Kew. The Handbook describes 219 species from New Zealand. Of these Colenso sent 148, while no fewer than 135 are described from his only. Lastly, of algee, 89 of the rarer species out of 319 described are credited to Colenso. He is easily, therefore, the naturalist who has made the most numerous additions to our knowledge of the vegetation of New Zealand. It has further to be remembered that since the publication of the Handbook in 1867 he has added very largely to our knowledge of the lower cryptogams. The volumes of Transactions of the New Zealand Institute contain no fewer than 103 papers by him, mostly on natural history subjects. Some of the later ones would have been better to have been condensed; but it must have been very difficult for Sir James Hector, who edited these volumes dtiring the years wdien Mr Colenso was a- contributor, to suggest condensation or suppression. Mr Colenso's zeal did not diminish with age, for "the Transactions contain papers written, by him, describing plants collected during a journey made to the flanks of the Ruahine Range in his 85th year. . . . It is true that in his later descriptive writings he adopted views as to the circumscription of species which are in conflict with those held" by all other New Zealand botanists, and thus introduced a vast number of synonyms into the flora; but that is a circumstance which must not detract from the recognition of his undoubted services to.the botany of New Zealand." So says Cheeseman.

His last botanical papers in the Transactions are "A Description of Some Newly-found Indigenous Native Ferns," read before the Hawke's Bay Philosophical Institute on October 10, 1898, and published* in Vol. 31; and "Phamogams: A Description of a Few More Newly-dis-covered Indigenous Plants." It is sad to have to add that three species of the ferns described in the first paper, and the 25 spices of flowering plants in the second, are all reduced to synonyms of well-known species by Cheeseman, in his and three are altogether ignored. Yet Cheeseman was most sympathetic towards, and appreciative of, Colenso's work. In Vol. 32 there appear two fragments written shortly before his death, which occurred in 1899. Mr Colenso was for many years a Fellow of the Linnean Society, and also received the high honour of Fellowship of the Royal Society, in recognition of his eminent contributions to science.

"I have not touched on it, but for very many years Mr Colenso was the chief authority on the Maori race, and has left many valuable writings on the subject. His memory is still cherished in Hawke's Bay, and especially in Napier, where he was .looked upon as the special representative of scientific knowledge.