Cockayne. — Plant Geography of the Waimakariri. 115 



ning of December, and near the Waimakariri glaciers 

 (1,219 m. altitude) from the middle of January to the 

 middle of February. 

 Clematis australis blooms in Tarata Garden during middle 

 of October ; at Bealey at end of November or begin- 

 ning of December, and on Arthur's Pass at beginning 

 of January. 

 Celmisia bellidioides bloomed in Tarata Garden 2nd Octo- 

 ber, 1895, and on Arthur's Pass at end of December, 

 1897. 

 As a general rule New Zealand alpine and subalpine plants 

 bloom in cultivation near sea-level from a month to a month 

 and a half earlier than in the mountains at an elevation of 

 from 750 m. to 1,000 m. The time at which these alpine 

 plants bloom iu their natural habitats is probably dependent 

 not on the temperature of the air, but upon the time when the 

 snow melts, and it seems an hereditary habit to bloom at a 

 fixed time after such melting, each species having its own 

 limit of time, some longer some shorter, but dependent in 

 large measure, I think, on the preceding year's climate having 

 been sufficient to produce the incipient bud up to the requisite 

 state of development ; while the blooming of the same species 

 in cultivation exposed to a mild winter and spring, and with 

 no covering of snow, must depend upon heredity varied by the 

 climate of the current year. 



Some of the alpine plants are so precocious as to put forth 

 their blooms even before the snow is quite away — e.g., Caltha 

 novcB-zelandicB . Buchanan writes,''' " The intense heat of 

 the sun at high altitudes is, no doubt, an important element 

 in hastening growth, but the chief cause must be ascribed in 

 many cases to the advanced stage at which the plants have 

 arrived before the melting of the snows in spring has uncovered 

 them. Large plants such as PMnunculus huchanani were found 

 8 in. to 10 in. high, with the leaves and flower-buds fully 

 formed." The phenomenon of Euphrasia partly developing 

 its blooms while in the freezing-chamber at Lyttelton seems 

 also a case in point. t Christ | describes similar phenomena 

 in the Swiss x\lps thus : " Avant que la surface du sol, com- 

 primee par le poids de la neige, ait commence a se reveiller 

 de sa torpeur, avant meme que les bourgeons jaunatres des 

 herbes aient commence a pousser on voit s'ouvrir tout pres 

 de la neige, et parfois dans la neige meme toute une seree de 



* " On the Alpine Flora of New Zealand" (Trans. N.Z. Inst., 

 vol. xiv., 1881, p. 343). 



t L. Cockayne : " On the Freezing of New Zealand Alpine Plants" 

 (Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. xxx., p. 439). 



X H. Christ : " La Flore de la Suisse et ses origines." Edition Fran- 

 (jaise, Bale, Geneve, Lyon, 1883, p. 376. 



