326 Transactions. — Botany. 



straight towards an opening between Mount Fyfe and the 

 hill I wished to get on. Through this opening the River 

 Hapuka emerges from the hills, the distance from Kai- 

 koura being between seven and eight miles. Having arrived 

 at this point early in the day, I was in hopes of being able 

 to botanise on the hill for several hours, and also to reach the 

 summit ; but after travelling up the rough bed of the river 

 for about a mile the banks approached close to the water's 

 edge, and further progress up the stream was barred by 

 high perpendicular rocks on both sides and a foaming tor- 

 rent in front. Subsequently I tried to reach the hill by 

 going up the creeks tributary to the Hapuka, but without 

 success, as I found that none of them led anywhere near 

 it. After having made the above attempt I was informed 

 that the north branch of the Hapuka led to one of the 

 northern spurs of the hill. The spur appeared a great 

 distance away, and I did not attempt to reach it, but 

 confined my operations to examining the vegetation on the 

 river -banks until I arrived above a narrow gorge in the 

 limestone rocks abraded by the water of the river. My 

 reason for not attempting to get to the hill by this way was 

 because I had on the previous day discovered a route about 

 200 yards below the torrent above mentioned. By climbing 

 up the steep bank of the river the bush was reached, which 

 led up to the open hill above the bush-line. When the 

 limit of the bush was reached a thunder-storm came on, 

 accompanied by heavy rain, which put an end to further 

 research in that direction. 



All the mosses recorded by me from the neighbourhood 

 of Kaikoura in this and previous papers, with the exception 

 of two, were collected in the district drained by the River 

 Hapuka and its tributaries. 



On several days during the time I remained in Kaikoura 

 I botanised on the coast -line, an agreeable change from 

 travelling on boulders in the river-beds. The line of coast 

 from the south of the Mokonui River to within a few 

 miles of the mouth of the Clarence River was examined, 

 and in the sandy bed of the Mokonui, growing in the 

 mud, was found the moss recorded in this paper as Trichos- 

 tomum mokonui ense. It was rather scarce, and this so far 

 is its only known habitat. The country from this river to 

 near Kaikoura is flat and uninteresting, and at the season 

 of the year I visited it was completely dried up. Near 

 Kaikoura are numerous precipitous cliffs, and along their 

 bases grows the moss named Gymnostomiim qibsonii. It is 

 very common, but is rarely found in fruit. These two 

 mosses were the only new ones collected on a line of up- 

 wards of twenty miles. 



