Cockayne. — Plant Geogra'pliy of the Waimakarlri. 97 



tories, cannot observe for themselves the actual environment 

 of a plant in a distant laud, or the manifold details connected 

 with its life-conditions and the respondmg adaptations of the 

 organism to these. Such can only be learnt by studying the 

 plants in nature, and at all seasons. Experiments also with 

 living plants can be more easily carried out at home than abroad, 

 where, in many instances, it is very difficult to keep them 

 alive, and still more so to grow them in a natural manner. 

 This latter branch will form some small part of my subject, but 

 the former — viz., the environment of the wild plants and their 

 more evident adaptations — will constitute the greater part of 

 what is to follow, so that the work as a whole will savour more 

 of the open air than of the botanical laboratory or the study. 



I have selected a small portion of the South Island for treat- 

 ment rather than the Island in its entirety, since the time is 

 hardly ripe for a work of such an extensive nature, and a 

 smaller area can be treated much more thoroughly, and yet at 

 the same time be eminently typical of the whole Island. Of 

 all regions to be found in this Island none seems to offer 

 itself as better or even as well suited for such an investiga- 

 tion as that under consideration. For, in the first place, a 

 portion at any rate of the mountain region is easily examined, 

 thanks to a coach-road, an excellent coach service, and the 

 accommodation offered by two hotels. Other parts, too — the 

 Canterbury Plains, the coastal region, and most of the foot- 

 hills — are easy to examine. Also, it is the only region where 

 meteorological records at so high an elevation as 641 m. have 

 been kept, and which, in combination with those of Hokitika, 

 afford some idea of the heavy western rainfall. On the other 

 hand, the records of Christchurch and Lincoln tell us some- 

 thing of the weather of the Canterbury Plains and of the 

 sand-dune region. The district also presents an admirable 

 example of two distinct climatic regions, the one extremely 

 wet, the other dry. There are also lower mountain, subalpine, 

 and alpine zones, and many very characteristic plant-forma- 

 tions depending upon peculiarities of soil. 



From what is written above it must not be imagined that 

 the district as a whole is easy of access. On the contrary, a 

 considerable portion is quite uninhabited. The valley of the 

 Eiver Poulter, for a distance of thirty miles or more, does not 

 contain an inhabitant or even a hut, and the main sources of 

 the Waimakariri, as also most of the country to the north of 

 that river, is practically uninhabited. The mountains also in 

 that part of the district being forest-clad up to a height of 

 from some 900 m. to 1,200 m. makes the approach to the sub- 

 alpine and alpine regions difficult. One trouble in the way of 

 exploring such country is the taking of a sufficient food-supply 

 to meet the danger of being cut off from the settled regions 



