THE LATE MR H. J. MATTHEWS.
[Contributed.]
Through the untimely death of Henry John Matthews the Dominion has lost a most valuable servant, yet his value was practically hidden from the public eye, for he was one of those modest persons who abstain from everything savouring of self advertisement. A few know and appreciate the work he had done, which one would have hoped he would have been spared to carry on for many years and have lived to see the fruit of his labours in the shape of a supply of timber derived from the trees he had planted It was no light task he undertook to organise and establish a new department, for before his appointment to the office of State Forester the Forestry Department existed in name only. He had the knack of selecting and retaining good men as his subordinates, which is one of the main secrets of success in the management of large undertakings. Although trees of divers sorts had been grown in the Dominion by private persons, it might almost be said that it was a new field which lay before Mr Matthews; but his knowledge of practical horticulture, his sound common sense, and careful study of the authorities dealing with forestry in other lands enabled him to institute and carry on his department on sound lines. One of his earliest tasks was one of great difficulty. He was instructed to establish plantations in the dry Maniototo district. The Government had previously attempted to do so, as had also the County Council, without success; but where they failed he succeeded, as the plantation near Naseby testifies. In the Rotorua district he has proved that the waste pumice lands can be converted into valuable forests. As the conditions he had to encounter were new, a good deal of experimental work had to be done, most of which, owing to his thoughtful care, proved successful. Two stations — one in Marlborough and the other at Kurow — have had to be abandoned, but their selection was made, contrary to his advice, by those having higher authority. With these exceptions, the work of the department has been most satisfactory, and few even amongst our members of Parliament realise what a valuable public asset is being slowly — indeed too slowly — created.
Some few years ago Mr Matthews published a little book on forestry in New Zealand, which ought to be in the hands of everyone who contemplates planting, as it is filled with sound practical information on the subject. He was an ardent lover of plants, and especially so of those belonging to his native land. New Zealand, of which he had a knowledge equalled by few, and it is to be regretted that he was never moved to commit his observations to writing, as much that he could have put on record will probably be irrevocably lost owing to the changes continually going on in our land ihrough the invasion of a foreign flora and the ravages of stock. Notwithstanding the thorough botanical exploration New Zealand has undorgone, almost since its discovery, Mr Matthews was the happy finder of several new species. His chief recreation, and one which he thoroughly enjoyed, was exploring our mountain wilds and compelling them to reveal their botanical secrets. His collection of growing native plants is unique, and though of no great market value, is of immense botanical interest. It is to be hoped that some arrangement may be made whereby it may be secured for the Dominion and his fair city. -Otago Witness, 5/5/1909.
BLOOMS AT OTARI
A RARE NATIVE
THE MARLBOROUGH HAREBELL
STORY OF DISCOVERY
A human as well as a horticultural history attaches to a rare New Zealand harebell which bloometh in the Gresly Lukin Alpine Garden at the Otari Open Air Plant Museum, Wilton's Bush, Wadestown.
Many of the early lovers of the New Zealand native vegetation were not scientific, and were not able to make themselves a high place in botanical science — perhaps not any place in it. Yet they were explorers, collectors, or gardeners, and some were all three. Quite a long time ago — so long that it is almost forgotten — there were men who could make difficult native plants grow. Not being scientific writers, they received but little recognition in their day, and possibly their gardens died with them. Some of them were also discoverers, and have thus left their names on species.
HENRY JOHN MATTHEWS. It was given to Henry John Matthews to thus perpetuate his name, and also to lay the foundations of afforestation in New Zealand. Yet, even with this double claim, his work is not remembered as well as it should be, and would not be remembered as well as it is were it not for the recognition of other workers whose standing in botany has enabled them to bring to notice his memorable services.
In the early days of horticulture in New Zealand his father (George Matthews), a Dunedin nurseryman, established at Hawthorn Hill, Mornington, some 700 feet above sea level, what Dr. L. Cockayne (C.M.G., F.R.S.) afterwards referred to as "a famous garden," in which rarer alpine and sub-alpine species of New Zealand plants received special attention. A catalogue devoted to New Zealand plants, issued by this firm as long ago as the 'eighties, has contents that would astonish many moderns. Twenty-one named species of Celmisia are given, and it is added that altogether thirty are available, some un-named; 15 species of Olearia, 14 of Senecio, 50 of Veronica. The catalogue included, in plants for sale, Ranunculus Lyallii and Ranunculus Buchanani. "The latter," remarks Mr. B. C. Aston in the "Journal of Horticulture, is "one of the finest members of this genus, and a species which is seldom grown, though. Matthews was given a prize for it at an early horticultural show in Dunedin." Thus, even in the 'eighties, "this firm had learned how to grow for the market certain rare alpine plants which are not now available."
By the 'nineties, Henry John Matthews had become the presiding genius of the Matthews garden. But he was a worker in the wider field also. He became an enthusiastic plant hunter, and greatly increased the number of species grown and improved the methods of growing them. All parts of New Zealand were visited by him, and yielded treasures which beautified the specially constructed rock gardens and borders which became a distinctive feature of the gardens. Plant lovers were always welcomed to inspect the large stock of plants usually regarded as difficult to grow, but which it was found could easily be grown at this altitude (700 feet) in specially trenched ground reinforced by soil taken from the nearby mountain, Flagstaff Hill. In this way such plants as Ranunculus Lyallii and the other handsome sister species, as well as rare Southern Island plants, were grown and distributed. Henry Matthews was careful to dry specimens of anything he discovered strange to him. These were sent to the working botanists of the day, and are now to be found in the herbaria of those late workers, Thomas Kirk, T. F. Cheeseman, and D. Petrie, as well as of those fortunately still with us, notably Dr. L.Cockayne.
DISCOVERY AND RE-DISCOVERY. It was in the year 1905 that Matthews the plant-hunter made an interesting discovery leading up (after many years) to our Gresley Lukia Alpine Garden harebell. During an excursion to Marlborough he saw several curious plants on a rock, and one of these was the harebell, to be afterwards named Wahlenbergia Matthewaii. He sent the plant to Dr. Cockayne, "who, with the true caution of the botanist, put it aside until it should be confirmed by further inquiry." In 1915, in the company of a party traversing the foothills of the Kaikoura Mountains, Mr. B. C. Aston (the writer of the articles now being quoted) re-discovered this plant, enabling Dr. Cockayne to describe it fully in the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute, Volume 47, 1915, p, 113. "It was not until the Otari Open Air Plant Museum was established (remarks Mr. Aston) that an opportunity of growing rare New Zealand plants under skilled supervision enabled the horticultural possibilities of this beautiful species to be fully examined.
"The pale lilac flowers of this lovely plant have now become an arresting sight to those seeking horticultural inspiration in the Gresley Lukin Alpine Garden. A clump of this Marlborough species was planted near a boulder in 1929 in a well-lighted situation, and seeds have wandered across the path, germinated, and produced mature plants which flowered this year, so that the moraine garden has been strengthened by the domestication of an outstanding horticultural novelty, the first success in this respect which can be credited to Dr. Cockayne's comprehensive scheme, the key note of which is to be beauty. It is fortunate that this early achievement administering to the aesthetic needs of man has been of a kind that all gardeners can appreciate, and that the novelty has made its debut not only at Wilton's Bush but at Vincent Square, Chelsea, the Mecca of British gardeners and the headquarters of the Royal Horticultural Society. Seeds were gathered from the Alpine Garden and sent to Major F. C. Stern in 1929, and raised by him, and were happily the object of an award of merit by the Royal Horticultural Society.
WORTHY MEMBER OF BELLS FAMILY. "This harebell belongs to a very distinguished company of related plants of 55 genera and 1000 species, many grown in gardens for superiority in two out of the three attributes which make for excellence in flowers. Two of these, form and colour, are present to a conspicuous degree in all plants of the Bell family or Campariulaceae of the botanist. The third attribute, fragrance, is seldom present. No one with any taste in gardening will dispute the popularity of these plants, whether for the rock garden, the moraine garden, or the open border. Indeed, one or two are so tall that they may be placed at the very back of the border or amongst shrubs. They range in colour from white to pink and all shades of blue, but in form all shapes of the bell may be found, from the tiniest rock plant with a multitude of nodding bells to the larger sorts known as 'cups and saucers,' which make such brilliant shows in the flower beds, the climax being reached in the regal pink-flowered Ostrowskia Magnifies, six to ten feet high, which must be seen to be believed. The little New Zealand stranger can hold up its bells with the best of the family, and because of its hardiness, one would almost say its pluck, and the ready way it responds to the efforts of the rock gardener, a smiling future may be predicted for it."
Matthews the cultivator of native plants, Matthews the discoverer of new ones, was also Matthews the forester. "Henry (writes Mr. Aston) had learnt the trade of joiner, which gave him the working knowledge of New Zealand timbers, and this stood him in good stead when the Seddon Administration were looking for a Chief Forester, to which position he was appointed in the year 1900. He was largely responsible for the planting scheme carried on at Rotorua and elsewhere, which developed into the modern Forestry Department of the New Zealand Government. Besides the subject of this note, other plants named after him are: Ranunculus Matthewsii (T.F.C.), Epilobium Matthewsii (D.P.), Veronica Matthewsii (T.F.C.), and Festuea Matthewsii (T.F.C.). A useful manual on tree culture in New Zealand was published from his pen in 1905 (Government Printer). He died in 1909." Dr. Cockayne has written that the name of Matthews "must ever stand high as a pioneer of New Zealand commercial forestry; nor must it be forgotten that much of his work was necessarily of an experimental nature." -Evening Post, 19/4/1932.
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