In A Life Of Continual Excitement One Thinks Very
Little Of These Things.
They may, however, serve to give English
readers a glimpse of some of the numerous incidents which, constantly
occurring in one shape or other, render the life of a colonist not only
endurable, but actually pleasant.
CHAPTER IX
Plants of Canterbury - Turnip - Tutu - Ferns - Ti Palm - Birds - Paradise
Duck - Tern - Quail - Wood Hen - Robin - Linnet - Pigeon - Moa - New Parroquet -
Quadrupeds - Eels - Insects - Weta - Lizards.
The flora of this province is very disappointing, and the absence of
beautiful flowers adds to the uninteresting character which too
generally pervades the scenery, save among the great Southern Alps
themselves. There is no burst of bloom as there is in Switzerland and
Italy, and the trees being, with few insignificant exceptions, all
evergreen, the difference between winter and summer is chiefly
perceptible by the state of the grass and the temperature. I do not
know one really pretty flower which belongs to the plains; I believe
there are one or two, but they are rare, and form no feature in the
landscape. I never yet saw a blue flower growing wild here, nor indeed
one of any other colour but white or yellow; if there are such they do
not prevail, and their absence is sensibly felt. We have no soldanellas
and auriculas, and Alpine cowslips, no brilliant gentians and anemones.
We have one very stupid white gentian; but it is, to say the least of
it, uninteresting to a casual observer. We have violets, very like
those at home, but they are small and white, and have no scent. We have
also a daisy, very like the English, but not nearly so pretty; we have a
great ugly sort of Michaelmas daisy too, and any amount of spaniard. I
do not say but that by hunting on the peninsula, one might find one or
two beautiful species, but simply that on the whole the flowers are few
and ugly. The only plant good to eat is Maori cabbage, and that is
swede turnip gone wild, from seed left by Captain Cook. Some say it is
indigenous, but I do not believe it. The Maoris carry the seed about
with them, and sow it wherever they camp. I should rather write, USED
to sow it where they CAMPED, for the Maoris in this island are almost a
thing of the past.
The root of the spaniard, it should be added, will support life for some
little time.
Tutu (pronounced toot) is a plant which abounds upon the plains for some
few miles near the river-beds; it is at first sight not much unlike
myrtle, but is in reality a wholly different sort of plant; it dies down
in the winter, and springs up again from its old roots. These roots are
sometimes used for firewood, and are very tough, so much so as not
unfrequently to break ploughs. It is poisonous for sheep and cattle if
eaten on an empty stomach.
New Zealand is rich in ferns. We have a tree-fern which grows as high
as twenty feet. We have also some of the English species; among them I
believe the Hymenophyllum Tunbridgense, with many of the same tribe. I
see a little fern which, to my eyes, is our English Asplenium
Trichomanes. Every English fern which I know has a variety something
like it here, though seldom identical. We have one to correspond with
the adder's tongue and moonwort, with the Adiantum nigrum and Capillus
Veneris, with the Blechnum boreale, with the Ceterach and Ruta muraria,
and with the Cystopterids. I never saw a Woodsia here; but I think that
every other English family is represented, and that we have many more
besides. On the whole, the British character of many of the ferns is
rather striking, as indeed is the case with our birds and insects; but,
with a few conspicuous exceptions, the old country has greatly the
advantage over us.
The cabbage-tree or ti palm is not a true palm, though it looks like
one. It has not the least resemblance to a cabbage. It has a tuft of
green leaves, which are rather palmy-looking at a distance, and which
springs from the top of a pithy, worthless stem, varying from one to
twenty or thirty feet in height. Sometimes the stem is branched at the
top, and each branch ends in a tuft. The flax and the cabbage-tree and
the tussock-grass are the great botanical features of the country. Add
fern and tutu, and for the back country, spear-grass and Irishman, and
we have summed up such prevalent plants as strike the eye.
As for the birds, they appear at first sight very few indeed. On the
plains one sees a little lark with two white feathers in the tail, and
in other respects exactly like the English skylark, save that he does
not soar, and has only a little chirrup instead of song. There are also
paradise ducks, hawks, terns, red-bills, and sand-pipers, seagulls, and
occasionally, though very rarely, a quail.
The paradise duck is a very beautiful bird. The male appears black,
with white on the wing, when flying: when on the ground, however, he
shows some dark greys and glossy greens and russets, which make him very
handsome. He is truly a goose, and not a duck. He says "whiz" through
his throat, and dwells a long time upon the "z." He is about the size
of a farmyard duck. The plumage of the female is really gorgeous. Her
head is pure white, and her body beautifully coloured with greens and
russets and white. She screams, and does not say "whiz." Her mate is
much fonder of her than she is of him, for if she is wounded he will
come to see what is the matter, whereas if he is hurt his base partner
flies instantly off and seeks new wedlock, affording a fresh example of
the superior fidelity of the male to the female sex.
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