PLANTS OF THE OUTLYING ISLANDS. 125 



the pleasure of visiting this group, the following account is based, on 

 Mr. Cheeseman's admirable paper on the subject published in 1888. 



From the subantarctic islands to the subtropical Kermadecs is a 

 long step, and yet the dominant tree in the latter is also a Metrosideros 

 (M. riUosa), a relation, however, of the pohutukawa and not of the 

 southern rata. But with this the similarity between the two regions 

 ends, except that both are of volcanic origin ; and there is no more 

 outward resemblance between the plant-forms than there is between 

 the climates. 



As seen from the sea. there is nothing in the appearance of the 

 plant-covering of the Kermadecs to recall the tropics. No feathery 

 cocoanut-palms fringe the shore. On the contrary, the rather dull 

 hue of the New Zealand foliage, as seen from a distance, is everywhere 

 manifest. 



Sunday Island, the largest of the group, is forest-clad, while 

 Macauley Island is almost entirely without arborescent growth. The 

 whole group is of volcanic origin, as stated above, and the small Curtis 

 Island is still in the solfatara state. 



A certain number of tropical plants have reached the Kermadecs. 

 but nothing like what might be expected. Amongst these are 

 Ipomaea pes-caprae (which forms the well-known plant society on so 

 many tropical shores). Canavalia obtusi folia (a climbing leguminous 

 plant). Ageratum conyxioides (which bears the name of cherry-pie, or 

 wild heliotrope), Aleurites moluccana* (the candlenut of the Polynesian 

 Islands), and also some grasses and one or two ferns. 



Certain plants are peculiar to the group. Amongst these are two 

 coprosmas, C. petiolata and C. acuti folia, the former closely related 

 to C. chathamica, of Chatham Island ; Suttonia kermadecensis. related 

 to a Norfolk Island plant ; Homalanthus polyandrus, a tree of the 

 spurge family ; and two fine tree-ferns, Cyathea Milnei and one dis- 

 covered bv Oliver and named bv him C. kermadecensis. 



*j \j 



But the rank and file of the plants are such as would be met with 

 in the North Island for example, the karaka, ngaio, wharangi (Meli- 

 cope ternata). mahoe, tutu, ivy-tree (Notkopanax arboreum}. &c. In 

 fact, about four-fifths of the flora f consists of ordinary New Zealand 

 plants. 



' According to Oliver this is not indigenous. 



f According to Oliver there are 114 species, which belong to 88 genera and 

 42 families. 



