File:Plants of New Zealand (1906) (14597654467).jpg

Identifier: plantsofnewzeala1906lain (find matches)
Title: Plants of New Zealand
Year: 1906 (1900s)
Authors: Laing, R. M. (Robert Malcolm), b. 1865 Blackwell, E. W. (Ellen W.)
Subjects: Plants
Publisher: Christchurch : Whitcombe and Tombs, Ltd.
Contributing Library: The LuEsther T Mertz Library, the New York Botanical Garden
Digitizing Sponsor: The LuEsther T Mertz Library, the New York Botanical Garden

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ent of uniform thickness and changeless hue. Perhapsthe beech forest is most beautiful when its depths are illuminatedby the rays of sunset. It often happens in Canterbury, during a north-west gale,that just before nightfall the sun drops below the heavycurtain of clouds into the clear arch of sky below, and atevening it is light. As the level beams are thrown into therecesses of some sombre bush-clad ravine in the foot-hills,the sight is one to be remembered for a lifetime. Thoughquite natural, it seems, from the vividness of its spectaculareffects, unnatural. The giant limbs of the trees push forth onall sides with lance-like thrust, and the inter-spaces betweentheir wide-spreading horizontal branches, form pathways, bywhich the shafted light can penetrate far into the bush. Thegreat halls of greenery are revealed in vista after vista, and inthe background are seen the brown, dead leaves, that lag theforest brook along, for in these drier districts there is little THE BEECH TREE 131
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In the Beech Forest 132 PLANTS OF NEW ZEALAND undergrowth. Over the countless green mosaics of the hvingbranches, with their two-ranked twigs and leaves, the eveningsunshine passes, and stirs into activity all the life within,at the same time throwing into relief the infinite detail oftracery and arabesque in bough and bole. The bearded lichenstrailing from the branches are almost motionless^ though thewind thunders overhead. One side of the valley is in thedimmest twilight, whilst on the other every shoot flares out inalmost garish distinctness. The contrast is a violent one ; butit is soon gone, and only the rosy colours of the clouds aboveremain to break the darkness. With sunset the north-westeralways lulls for a short time, and then its roar gives placeto the coo-ee of the weka and the melancholy cry of the owl. Distribution of the New Zealand Species, The genus Nothofagus has some half-dozen representativesin New Zealand, all forest trees known to bushmen as birch,but more corre

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