78 



NEW ZEALAND PLANTS. 



native parasitic fungus, one of the rusts, those protean plants which 

 totally changing their form and habits, spend a part of their existence 

 on one plant and another 

 portion upon quite a dif- 

 ferent species. 



Veronica elliptica, the 

 coastal shrubby veronica, 



tj 



mentioned above, deserves 



a few words. In the first 



place, it is one of our South 



American connections. 



When fairly sheltered it is 



a fine upright - growing 



shrub, covered closely on 



its outer twigs with rather 



thick palish - green small 



leaves. Like all the other 



veronicas, its flowers have 



only two stamens. The 



corolla is at first bright 



purple, but soon fades to 



white. The scent of the 



flowers is delicious. It is 



abundant in the Auckland 



and Campbell Islands, the Snares, Stewart Island, the west coast of the 



South Island, and the east coast to about as far north as Dunedin. 



From the remainder of the South Island it is absent, but appears 



again on the shore of Cook Strait at Titahi Bay, near Wellington. 



Strange to say, it extends no farther to the north, though it grows 



freely from seeds, and may be cultivated at any point on the .New 



Zealand coast. 



FIG. 35. Flower-heads of Purple-flowered 

 Drtisy-tree. 



[Photo, J. Crosby Smith. 



VEGETATION OF CLIFFS AND ROCKS. 



Metrosideros tomentosa, the well-known pohutukawa, the Christmas- 

 tree of which the Aucklanders are justly proud, was formerly much 

 more abundant than at present. It grows frequently on the faces 

 of cliffs, stretching outwards over the oyster-covered rocky shore. 

 Some of its roots are fixed in the solid rock, and creep for long dis- 

 tances over the surface a most remarkable sight while others 



