Floristik und Systematik der Phanerogamen. 339 



- Sandy sea-shore ; Sand-dunes; Sand-covered ledges on Rocks; Stony 

 Sea-shore; Rocky Sea-shore; Maritime Cliffs and Large Rocks; Shallow 

 Peaty soil underlaid by Rock; Limestone Cliffs and Rocks; Limestone 

 Forest; Lagoon; Lagoon-shore; Salt Meadow; Running Water; Swamps; 

 Lowland Forest; Heath; Lakes; Sphagnum Bog.; Lepyrodia-Olearia 

 Bog.; Phormium Bog.; Dracophyllum paludosum Formation; The Table- 

 land Forest; The Awatopu Forest; Olearia chathamica Formation; Table- 

 land Dry Ridges and Rock. 



He then proceeds to discuss the effects of the aboriginal inhabitants, 

 of introduced animals, of introduced plants, and of fires on the Vegeta- 

 tion; followed by the history of the same. It is well that this has been 

 done before the original and natural conditions have been too much 

 disturbed and altered, for the primitive physiognomies will very soon, 

 according to the author, be a thing of the past. 



The aboriginal inhabitants did not cultivate the ground at all; they 

 had neither flocks nor herds, and the only vegetable foods they made 

 use of were the rhizome of Pteris esculenta and the fruit of Coryno- 

 carpus laevigata, so their presence would have little disturbing effect on 

 the Vegetation. But it is otherwise with the white man, who, indirectly 

 rather than directly, because there is not much cultivation, by the intro- 

 duction of various animals and plants, is rapidly altering the aspects 

 of the Vegetation and exterminating certain elements. Horses and 

 cattle are increasing enormously, horses as well as cattle being wild in 

 many places and numerous, and some sixty thousand sheep roam freely 

 over the whole island. 



Unfortunately Mr. Cockayne does not give a complete list of 

 the plants known to be indigenous in the islands but he estimates the 

 vascular plants at 217 species, representing a relatively large number 

 of genera and Orders. Fifty-one of them are Cryptogams. Only one 

 genus, the showy Myosotidium (Borraginaceae) is endemic *), and about 

 thirty species, mostly very closely related to New Zealand forms and 

 hardly deserving the rank of distinct species. Indeed there can be little 

 doubt that the Chatham Islands are an isolated remnant of a former 

 more extended New Zealand area. All of the rest except one, 

 Leucopogon Richei, are common to New Zealand and the C ha tarn 

 Islands. This exception has a very wide ränge in Australia, but has 

 no other extensions. It is not a recent introduction in the Chatham 

 Islands, however, as it was abundant forty years ago in the main island and 

 was also recorded from Pitt Island. 



It would occupy too much space to give the names alone of the 

 principal plants characteristic of the various formations described by 

 Mr. Cockayne, but a few words may be given to the conspicuous and 

 predominating constituents in the flora as a whole. 



Nearly a quarter of the vascular plants are Cryptogams, and among 

 them are four tree ferns, namely Dicksonia antarctica, D. squarrosa, 

 Cyathea dealbata and C. medullaris. The trees are perhaps the most 

 interesting dement in the Vegetation. There are real and considerable 

 forests, but the trees are small as compared with many of those of 

 New Zealand. The tallest rarely attain 50 feet, and 20 to 40 ft. is the 

 common ränge. Conifers and Beeches are entirely absent and the forests 

 are composed of one species of each of the following genera : — Hyme- 



*) On this point Mr. T. F. Cheeseman, the Curator of the Auck- 

 land Museum, who is now writing a Flora of New Zealand, long ago 

 published (Trans. New Zeal. Institute. XII. p. 325) the following note: 

 — „The discovery of Sporadanthus in New Zealand proper, taken in 

 connection with the fact that Myosotidium is known to occur in the 

 S na res, has deprived the Chatham Island Florula of any claim to 

 an endemic genus." I suspect however, that this record is the outcome 

 of some error, especially as there is no mention of it in T. K i r k 's 

 enumeration of the plants of those islands published some years later. 

 W. B. H. 



22* 



