NEW ZEALAND PLANTS. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



THE PLANTS OF THE OUTLYING ISLANDS. 



A goblin forest The ancient forest of Antarctica A seashore cushion-plant- 

 Finest floral display outside the tvopics Giant tussocks Young albatroses 

 Macquarie Island The Snares Disappointment Island Beetles, spiders, 

 and amphipods of the Bounties Peculiar trees of the Chathams A lovely 

 shrub The tree-groundsel The great forget-me-not The Kermadec Islands 

 -Tropical plants on the Kermadecs. 



THE SUBANTARCTIC VEGETATION. 



LANDS of mist and sleet and hail, of fierce squalls born in the icy 

 south ; cruel, rock-bound coasts, scenes of brave men's death, or of 

 fierce struggles with the angry sea ; lands of brown hills, enclosed 

 by thick woods, weird and grotesque in very truth goblin forests, 

 patrolled and sentinelled by uncouth monsters of the deep : such 

 impression may our far-off subantarctic islands give at first. 



A closer view, and scenes more pleasing greet the traveller. De- 

 spite the ever-present gales, fields of magnificent flowers clothe the 

 hills in summer-time. Within the forest, beneath the thick entangle- 

 ment of gnarled and twisted branches of the trees, multitudes of ferns 

 spread out their feathery fronds into the dim light. The knotted 

 trunks, the fallen trees, the uneven ground, all are thickly covered 

 with a mantle most delicate of translucent filmy ferns. Mounds 

 of exquisite liverworts of many species adorn both forest-floor and 

 boles of trees. Thickets of shrubs abound. All is one close mass 

 of vegetation, save where long, bare paths of dark peat lead from the 

 dim recesses of the forest, along which a startled sea-lion may glide, 

 fearful of the intruder, or one at bay greet him with angry roar and 

 open jaws. 



It is in the Auckland Islands alone of these lonely lands that any 

 true forests are to be found. In Campbell Island trees are altogether 

 absent ; densely growing shrubs clothe the lower slopes and fill the 

 uullies. In Antipodes a few lines or patches of shrubs show as dark 

 spots amongst the all-prevailing tussock, while on Macquarie Island 

 woody plants are quite wanting. 



