Vegetable and Animal Products.

Vegetation.

The indigenous forest of New Zealand is evergreen, and contains a large variety of valuable woods. Amongst the smaller plants the Phormium tenax, or New Zealand flax, is of special value; whilst large tracts of country are covered with nutritious indigenous grasses, which support millions of sheep, and have thus been productive of great wealth to the colony. Many of the more valuable trees of Europe, America, and Australia have been introduced, and now flourish with a vigour scarcely ever attained in their natural habitats. In many parts of the colony the hop grows with unexampled luxuriance; whilst all the European grasses and other useful plants produce returns equal to those of the most favoured localities at Home. Fruit, too, is abundant all over New Zealand. Even in the latitude of Wellington oranges, lemons, citrons, and loquats are found, whilst peaches, pears, grapes, apricots, figs, melons, and, indeed, all the ordinary fruits of temperate climates abound. Roots and vegetables of all kinds grow luxuriantly.