98 



NEW ZEALAND PLANTS. 



Above, the stems branch again and again, and towards their 

 extremities are covered with small woolly leaves, packed as tightly 

 as possible. Finally, stems, leaves, and all are pressed into a dense, 

 hard, convex mass, making an excellent and appropriate seat for a 

 wearied botanist (figs. 47 and 48). Within the plant is a peat made 

 of rotting leaves and branches, which holds water like a sponge, 

 and into which the final branchlets send roots. Thus the plant lives 



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FIG. 40. The Penwiper Plant (Xotothlaspi rosidatum), growing on shingle-slip 

 of a river-terrace. Castle Hill, Canterbury. 



[Photo, L. Cockayne. 



in great measure on its own decay, and the woody main root serves 

 chiefly as an anchor. The vegetable-sheep are not inaptly named, 

 for at a distance a shepherd might be misled. The two principal 

 "sheep" are Haastia pulvinaris and linoulia eximia ; but there are 

 other smaller ones e.g., R. bryoides and /*. (Jot/cni, this latter of the 

 Stewart Island mountain-summits. 



