lover of flowers and ferns will meet with hundreds of species, many of them of striking beauty. The first thing perhaps in such a walk which would strike a visitor from the old country would be the English aspect of the grass and many of the flowers. And it is the case that over one hundred species of English plants have invaded and taken possession of the soil. The sward is largely composed now of cocksfoot, ryegrass, crested dogstail, soft Yorkshire fog, and sweet vernal grass, intermingled with gowans, ox-eye daisies, buttercups, the purple self-heal, white clover, and many other old and familiar friends. But the scrub, though occasionally touched up by blazes of yellow broom, and whitened by elder bushes, retains on the whole its primitive character. The trees appear somewhat sombre in general aspect, but their darker olive-green is relieved by the bright hues of the white mapau and the glossy foliage of broadleaf, black mapau, and panax. In spring, glorious festoons of white clematis abound, and later the carpodetus, so named from its ring-bound fruit, comes out a mass of fine whitish fragrant flowers. Over the slopes of Maori Hill the pretty houhere is found, a graceful little dark-foliaged tree, with white star-like blossoms often produced in great profusion. In December the white-flowered parsonsia, a common climber at the edge of the bush, trails its panicles of little waxen bells over many a less ornamental, but friendly support. Nor must we forget the vivid display made by the manuka scrub when in full bloom. Both species of manuka thrive and grow side by side in many parts of the Belt, and however common, and therefore to many persons uninteresting the plant may be, there are few prettier objects than a well-flowered spray. One of the most characteristic objects to be seen in the Belt, especially in the wooded portions, is the fine display of the very handsome flax-like Astelias. These are only a few of the commoner plants to be found in a walk round the Belt, but there are some botanical curiosities which are worth looking for. One of the rarest of these is—and we must here and there inflict a technical name for lack of any other—the yellow-flowered Senecio sciadophilus the only climbing senecio known. A little of it grows in the bush near Littlebourne, but except when in flower it is very difficult to distinguish, and even then very difficult to find. It flowers
