204 Transactions. 



Knob to Mount Pleasant, from all of which specimens were collected. 

 These points are mostly from 1,600 ft. to 1,800 ft. high. 



Senecio lagopus was found to occur plentifully in all favourable localities 

 —that is, especially on and about all steep rocks which face south and 

 south-west — practically continuously from the Akaroa Heads, on both sides 

 of Akaroa Harbour, to within a mile of the Port Hills. There is hardly 

 a space of even two miles in extent anywhere along this main line in which 

 S. lagopus does not occur ; it occupies an almost continuous line between 

 the points mentioned, and does not here differ generally from the form of 

 S. lagopus as known elsewhere in New Zealand. 



The most rema kable point about this distribution concerns the gap of 

 about four miles, a low undulating neck, which connects the south-west 

 peak of Mount Herbert with the Port Hills. This area is mostly under 

 cultivation, and offers but few escarpments. There are, however, three 

 or four possible localities, rhyolite escarpments or peaks, from 600 ft. to 

 875 ft. high, chiefly on the northern side of the gap. Upon the highest 

 and most likely of these stations, rocks between Gebbie's and McQueen's 

 Valleys, about 875 ft. high, neither has been found ; but upon two of them 

 (about 600 ft. to 700 ft. high), one just north of the road from Teddington 

 to Gebbie's Valley and the other just north of that, Senecio lagopus occurs 

 —not plentifully, but undoubted typical S. lagopus. Between these two 

 points and Mount Herbert, a distance of about three miles, neither plant is 

 found, the ground being nearly all under cultivation. The northernmost 

 of these points is barely one mile from the nearest peak of the Port Hills, 

 that south of* Cooper's Knob (about 1,600 ft. high), and here S. saxi- 

 fragoides begins to appear. This seems to me a most striking and puzzling 

 fact. Upon the peak next again to the south (on the Port Hills), though 

 it offers an ideal locality, neither plant occurs. 



We may conjecture that under the original conditions some part of this 

 gap at least was occupied by both species, but at present S. lagopus only 

 is found there, and that only upon the northern side, and upon what is 

 virtually a spur of the Port Hills. Mr. K. M. Laing, however, informs me 

 that he has collected plants of S. saxifragoides at various points on Banks 

 Peninsula proper, in the neighbourhood of Akaroa, and it has been seen 

 above that both Kirk and Cheeseman give Banks Peninsula as a locality 

 for the species. It may be suggested that states of S. lagopus, " some of 

 which," as Cheeseman says, " approach it very closely," have been mis- 

 taken for S. saxifragoides. In any case, I cannot say that I have found 

 any examples of undoubted S. saxifragoides, having no bristles at all, on 

 Banks Peninsula proper. 



On the other hand, no plants of typical S. lagopus were found by me 

 anywhere along the Port Hills, though, as shown above, plants were fre- 

 quently found in that locality which showed more of the special characters 

 of S. lagopus than have hitherto, apparently, been observed or recorded. 



Except for a doubtful record in the Kaikoura neighbourhood, Senecio 

 saxifragoides seems to be confined to this locality. Forms observed by me 

 in April, 1917, on Mount FyfEe and some other points on the Seaward 

 Kaikouras were all typical S. lagopus. 



The specimens collected from Banks Peninsula and the Port Hills were 

 preserved and fixed in such a manner as to make confusion impossible, and 

 were then submitted while still fresh to Dr. Cockayne, together with certain 

 inferences and conclusions to be drawn from them. 



While both plants show a preference for high rocky situations and dark, 

 cold faces, neither is by any means restricted to such localities. Both are 



