104 Transactions. 



5. It is adapted only for life under very special and peculiar conditions — 

 e.g., its confinement to gentle gradients and to a limestone soil — which 

 conditions have been provided and preserved for it, by a series of fortunate 

 chances, in one small locality only (so far as is known at present). 



6. Its life-history may be thus summed up conjecturally : Originating in 

 the very remote past during a period of drought (which was probably very 

 long) somewhere within or not far from an extensive area of Tertiary lime- 

 stone, this plant acquired marked xerophytic characters and flourished, 

 maintaining itself with ease, and as the area upon which it grew was 

 slowly and gradually eroded (or perhaps, in parts, more rapidly by glacia- 

 tion) it was restricted to areas continually diminishing in size and farther 

 and farther separated from one another, until it remained in only one very 

 limited area peculiarly situated and adapted to its needs. Here, as in 

 its original state, it had little or no severe competition to meet and over- 

 come, and for countless ages it has continued to exist there, surviving at 

 least one great period of glaciation, which its habitat escaped ; at least one 

 pluvial epoch, which could not be favourable to it ; and finally the various 

 dangers resultant upon human occupation '^- depredations of stock and 

 of hares and rabbits, pests and blights, and agricultural necessities and 

 accidents, such as the plough and the wax match. Thus within its own 

 narrow nook, secure from the competition of rivals, this strange plant, 

 relic of an earlier day and clime, is passing slowly and, it may be permitted 

 to fancy, unreluctantly away before our eyes in an age-long euthanasia. 



I desire to express my great obligation of Mr. E. Speight, who with 

 infinite trouble and pains took photographs of the plant in situ and of the 

 locality ; to Dr. W. P. Evans, who also photographed and sketched the 

 locality and took the necessary observations of heights and levels and the 

 measurements of the area ; to Mr. A. E. Flower, who, with Dr. Evans, 

 assisted me in the task of counting the plants ; and to Dr. L. Cockayne, 

 who has most kindly read over the whole of the paper and given me the 

 benefit of his invaluable suggestions and criticisms. 



References. 



Cheeseman, T. F., 1906. Manual of the New Zealand Flora. 



Cockayne, L., 1900. A Sketch of the Plant Geography of the Waimakariii River 



Basin, considered chieflv from an CEcological Point of View, Trans. N.Z. Inst., 



vol. 32, pp. 95-136. 

 _ — 1901. An Inquiry into the Seedling Forms? of New Zealand Phanerogams and 



their Development, Trans. N.Z: Inst., vol. 33, pp. 265-98. 

 De Vries, H., 1912. Rice Institute Book of the Opening Lectures on Mutations in Heredity 



and Oeographical Botany. 

 Hooker, J. D., 1867. Handbook of the New Zealand Flora. 

 Htttton, F. W., 1885. Fauna and Flora of New Zealand, Ann. Nat. Hist., vol. 15, 



pp. 77-107. 

 1900. The Geological History of New Zealand, Tra7is. N.Z. Inst., vol. 32, 



pp. 159-83. 

 Kirk, T., 1899. Students' Flora of New Zealand and the Outlying Islands. 

 Speight, R., 1911. The Post-glacial Climate of Canterbury, Trans. N.Z. Inst., 



vol. 43, pp. 408-20. 

 • 1915. The Intermontane Basins of Canterbury, Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. 47, 



pp. 336-53. 

 . 1917. The Stratigraphy of the Tertiary Beds of the Trelissick or Castle Hill 



Basin, Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. 49, pp. 321-56. 

 Speight, R., Cockayne, L., and Laing, R. M., 1911. The IMount Arrowsmith District : 



a Study in Physiography and Plant Ecology, Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. 43, 



pp. 315-78. 

 Warming E., 1909. Oecology of Plants. 



