XXIV. THE NEW ZEALAND REGION.

EXTENT.-Two islands situated between 34o and 48° S. lat., and with an area of 62,160 square miles. The northern is the smaller, but possesses the greatest capabilities, and is called Eaheinomauwe. The southern is known as Tavai Poenammoo.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERS.-A lofty range of mountains, from 12,000 to 14,000 feet high, traverses both islands, their upper portions covered with eternal snows, and their lower clothed with noble forests, the trees of which are equally distinguished for their tall and stately growth, as for their great girth. The soil of the plains is plentiful in places, and yields a good return under cultivation.

CLIMATE.-Temperate, but liable to fluctuations. FLORA.-Tropical vegetation still lingers in palms, arborescent ferns, and epiphytic orchidacea; the latter cease at 45° S. lat. Areca sapida reaches 34° S. lat. There is a curious mixture of its own peculiar forms with others common to both near and distant regions, as is evident in the genera dracæna, forstera, myoporum, melaleuca, avicennia, weinmannia, tetragonia, dicera, pimelea, epacris, phormium, knightia, plagianthus, cyathea, angiopteris, gleichenia, fuchsia, andromeda, oxalis, and mesembryanthemum. Palms, tree-ferns, and epiphytic orchidaceæ all occur farther south than in New Holland. The kawrie, yielding valuable masts and spars, is the dammara australis or agathis australis.

RELATIONS.-The most interesting are with the Patagonia Region through fuchsia, mniarum, drymis, acæna, sisymbrium, and lepidium; and with the South Africa Region through gnaphalium, tetragonia, and oxalis.

There are also some other interesting affinities with South America. Agathis loranthifolia, a near ally of the kawrie, abounds in the Moluccas.

EXTENT.-Southern Africa beyond the tropic; Cape L'Agulhas, the extreme point, is in 34° 55′ S. L.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERS." The surface of this region is striking and peculiar, presenting three successive mountain ranges, running parallel to the coast and to each other. The first, called Lange Kloof, is between 20 and 60 miles from the ocean, the breadth of the intermediate plain being greatest in the west. The second chain, called the Zwaarte Berg, or Black Mountain, rises at an interval nearly similar behind the first, is considerably higher and more rugged, and consists often of double or triple ranges. Behind, at the distance of 80 or 100 miles, rises the Nieuweldts Gebirgte, the loftiest range in Southern Africa. The summits, to a great extent, are covered with snow; from which circumstance the eastern and most elevated part is called the Sneuwberg, or Snowy Mountains, whose highest pinnacles are not supposed to fall short of 10,000 feet. The plain nearest the sea is fertile, well watered, richly clothed with grass and trees, and enjoys a mild and agreeable climate. The plains between the successive ranges are elevated, and contain a large proportion of the species of arid desert called karroo. The southern plain in particular is almost entirely composed of the great karroo, 300 miles in length and nearly 100 in breadth, covered with a hard and impenetrable soil, almost unfit for any vegetation. Along the foot of the Sneuwberg, however,

there is a considerable tract, finely watered, and affording very rich pasturage. Beyond the mountains, the territory is for some space black and sterile; but it gradually improves till it opens into the extensive pastoral plain occupied by the Boshuanas. So far as this has been explored to the northward, it becomes always more fertile, though to the west there has been observed a desert of very great aridity. The eastern coast also consists chiefly of a fine pastoral plain, occupied by the various Caffre tribes, and broken by some chains of mountains, the direction of which has been very imperfectly explored."—(Murray's Geography.) The most fertile soil is found in the neighbourhood of the coasts, along the base of the Snowy Mountains, and in the vicinity of the rivers. Several rivers and streams traverse the country, becoming during the rains much swollen, and shrinking in the long and painful droughts to a small size, or to chains of muddy pools. Sandstone and granite greatly prevail in the mountain ranges, on which often repose clay-slate and greywache. "As far as is at present known, the whole of the table-land of Africa to the north of the Orange River is composed of limestone in horizontal strata, clay-slate, sandstone, and quartz rock, granite, greenstone, serpentine, and potstone." -(Jameson in Murray's Geography.) In some places the soil is very salt.

CLIMATE.-Over such a diversified surface there will be much variety in the climate. The mean temperature and range are different in situations in the neighbourhood of each other, and the eastern coasts are colder than the western. Mr. Colebrook's observations give the mean of Cape Town 67° 3, and the extremes 960 and 45°, or fiftyone degrees. The mean of the coldest month is 57°, of the hottest 79°, least summer heat 77°, and the solar radiation is very considerable. Inland both the mean and

range are lower; at Stellenbosch the mean of one year's observations was 66° 3, range from 87° to 50°; at Zwartland the mean 66o 5, range from 85o to 54°. The year is divided into the cold or rainy season, which lasts from May to October, and the warm or dry season, from November to April. From the same we have some facts on the hygroscopic condition of the atmosphere obtained near False Bay from December to March. At sunrise the ordinary dryness was 6° or 7°, the extreme from 12° to 3o. The maximum at noon was 26o, the greatest range within the day 35°, mean dryness of the morning 7°, of the noon 14°, and further minimum dryness scarcely a fourth of the atmospheric capacity for moisture.

FLORA. This portion of Africa presents a good specimen of a particular variety of vegetation, where there is an intimate relation between the flora and external influencing circumstances, and a close adaptation of the organs of plants to the duties required of them. In many respects this is highly conspicuous; the leaves are often very small or minutely divided, and clothed with hairs, or tomentose, or lanuginose investments; many species are provided with fleshy succulent leaves, which do not part readily with their juices, and serve as so many magazines of nourishment, whilst the very numerous bulbous plants are eminently adapted to a climate which, for a long season, is extremely arid; at this time the bulbs retain their vitality without requiring any nourishment, and are ready to assume activity on the appearance of the rains. The want of moisture, equally with low temperature, as seen in northern regions, would seem productive of a low, stunted, bushy vegetation, and is also characterised by the frequency of spinous organs, the disagreeable effects of which are expressed in the quaint name of wait-a-bit, given to acacia detinens. The colours of the flowers are usually rich and

brilliant, the brightness of the solar rays, assisted by a clear atmosphere, having developed them in the most perfect manner. Pink, yellow, and white flowers greatly prevail, with a rare mixture of those tamer colours seen in a luxuriant vegetation under a moist atmosphere. Though the flowers are not conspicuous for their fragrance, this is frequent in the foliage; we observe this in various pelargonium cultivated with us, and on the spot in species of diosma, compositæ, and the numerous stapelia, if the carrion odour of the latter can be so called.

The mention of a beautiful provision of nature must not be omitted, particularly as it involves a departure from a general rule. The capsules of several species of mesembryanthemum refuse to open except when moistened by the rains, lest, opening in a dry season, they should shed their seeds on an unprepared soil.

The very numerous species which constitute the flora of South Africa belong, to a considerable extent, to genera which are peculiar; and even when it shares its natural families with other regions, its genera are rarely extended to them; as in proteaceæ, leguminosa, irideæ, compositæ, rosaceæ, and cruciferæ. It is only in particular situations that forest exists, giving shelter to numerous savage buffaloes. The largest trees are ilex crocea, curtisia faginea, cunonia capensis, taxus elongata, laurus teterrima, olea capensis, tarchonanthus camphoratus, t. arboreus, brabejum stellatum, acacia vera, ekebergia capensis, and various proteaceæ, gardenia, and royena. We will glance hastily over the prevailing families and their more peculiar genera. Proteacea abounds in protea, serrularia, leucospermum, lorocephalus, spatalla, mimetes, and nivenia; Leguminosa has liparia, lebeckia, aspalathus, borbonia, lessertia, psoralia, podalyria, and schotia; Ericacea, the very numerous and interesting group of erica, and the far