PLANTS OF THE OUTLYING ISLANDS. 



123 



uificent tree-groundsel, which produces immense bunches of yellow 

 flower-heads, and has aromatic pale-green leaves in semi-rosettes 

 at the ends of its stiff, bare, brittle twigs. For many hundreds of 

 vards at a time this belt extends, forming, when covered with its uolden 



9J C7 



blossoms, a gorgeous mass of colour. 



On the dry open ground a heath society occurs, in which the 

 rounded bushes of Styphelia robusta (fig. 58), covered in the autumn 

 with white or red " berries," are conspicuous. Here, too, is the Aus- 



FIG. 58. Styphelia robusta. 



[Photo, J. Crosby Smith. 



tralian Styphelia Richei, which has recently been discovered also in 

 New Zealand proper. 



The most famous of all the Chatham Island plants is the giant 

 forget-me-not (Myosotidium nobile) (fig. 1), frequently called by the 

 absurd name of Chatham Island lily, or, what is worse, Macquarie 

 cabbage ! This wonderful plant, found nowhere else in the world, 

 is now almost extinct. Formerly it extended almost round the main 

 island, forming a broad belt on the sea-shore, just above where the dry 



