Cockayne. — Plant Geoijraphy of the Waunakariri. 117 



'determine plant-formations — climate and the nature of the 

 soil, the former affecting wide areas usually, and the latter 

 being often very limited in its operation. This has recently 

 been termed by Schimper " edaphic " (edaphisch) {loc. cit., 

 p. 5), and he characterizes the formations as climatic and 

 edaphic respectively. 



In what follows I shall use the term " formation "* to 

 include the more or less well-marked smaller communities, 

 while the larger will be called " plant-regions," and will, of 

 course, include numerous plant-formations. By Kernerf the 

 term "formation" is restricted to those communities which 

 are intermingled and exhibit a kind of stratification. A forest 

 with undergrowth of shrubs 'and a carpet of smaller plants on 

 the ground would be an example ; to such Drudej gives the 

 name of " formations etagees." • 



Tlie Climatic Regions. 



The moisture-laden north-west wind, hurrying over the 

 Dividing-range, deposits there and m the immediate vicinity 

 large quantities of water. Whatever moisture it still contains 

 falls, as it furiously drives along, upon the eastern spurs and 

 slopes of the Dividing-range, the rain reaching a greater or 

 shorter distance according to the quantity of moisture origi- 

 nally in the air and the velocity of the wind. In very rare 

 cases during a north-west storm a slight shower is ex- 

 perienced at the eastern seaboard ; more often the summits 

 of the Mount Torlesse Eange experience a more or less heavy 

 downpour or only a trifling shower, while under such circum- 

 stances the table-land up to an elevation of 900 m. gets no 

 rain at all, but only a drying tempest. Still more often it is 

 only the actual Dividing-range for a mile or two to the east 

 which gets the rain, and sometimes, indeed, none falls on the 

 eastern side, it being confined to the ridge and mountain-tops. 

 As an example of this, Bealey does not get nearly so much 

 wet weather as the country at the source of the Waimakariri. 

 I have seen rain fall when camped at the mouth of the Eiver 



* An account of the meaning of the term " plant-formation " as used 

 by different authors, and an admirable exposition of the aim of oecological 

 plant geography, may be seen in "Natural Science," vol. xiv., p. 109, in 

 an article by Bobert Smith, B.Sc, entitled " On the Study of Plant 

 Associations." I have purposely avoided tliis latter title, and kept to the 

 older one of " plant-formation," since Schimper uses the term—" Die 

 Genossenschaften " — to indicate the more intimate relations between 

 lianes, epiphytes, saprophytes, parasites, and the plants with which 

 they are associated. 



f Kerner and Oliver : " The Natural History of Plants," London, 

 1895, p. 896. 



\ " Manuel de Geographie Botanique," par Dr. 0. Drude (French 

 translation and revised edition), Paris, 1897, p. 207. 



