Pegg. — Ecological Study of New Zealand Sand-dune Plants. 151 



littoral district of the field observed ; in " Notes on the Botany of certain 

 Places in the Waikato District " (Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. 3, p. 142) and " On 

 Flora of Isthmus of Auckland and the Takapuna District" he mentions a 

 few coastal plants. 



D. Petrie, in an article entitled " A Visit to Stewart Island, with Notes 

 on its Flora " (Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. 13, p. 323), gives a description of 

 the various localities, with plants found there, and a list of plants grouped 

 in families, not according to environment. D. Petrie' also gives a "List 

 of the Flowering-plants indigenous to Otago, with Indications of their 

 Distribution and Kange in Altitude " (Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. 28, p. 540), 

 and in this list shore-plants are included. 



W. Townson, "On the Vegetation of the Westport District," includes in 

 his description of the district a list of plants (grouped in families), with a 

 brief description of their environment (Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. 29, p. 380). 



W. T. L. Travers, in his " Remarks on the Sand-dunes of the West 

 Coast of the Provincial District of Wellington (Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. 14, 

 p. 89), gives a list of the principal plants found on the sand-dunes of New 

 Zealand . 



L. Cockayne has several articles published in the " Transactions of 

 the New Zealand Institute," in which dune-ecology received for the first 

 time some attention ; but his " Report on the Sand-dunes of New Zealand," 

 published in 1909, gives the first comprehensive account of the sand-dune 

 plants of New Zealand. In 1911 an enlarged edition of this work appeared, 

 giving an account of the geology, botany, and reclamation of the dune 

 areas of New Zealand. Cockayne has given a general description of the 

 sand-dune flora of New Zealand, including a list of the species, in families, 

 with the distribution and growth-form of each, and grouping the dominant 

 species in plant associations according to their origin and relationships. 

 Such a general description, though comprehensive, is not intended to be 

 exhaustive or detailed, and no attention is paid to plant-anatomy. 



Any one species living in any plant association or region has its own 

 special conditions, apart from those of the habitat in general, and may 

 not show the characteristics of a typical denizen of that plant association. 

 Indeed, its anatomy may reveal characters quite unsuited to the general 

 habitat : for instance, although a sand-dune flora is typically xerophytic 

 certain species perhaps will not show xerophytic characters. Each in- 

 dividual species must therefore be examined in detail, to show how far 

 its habit and structure correspond with, or differ from, those typical of the 

 vegetation in which it is found. 



The present paper, then, is intended to supplement Cockayne's account 

 of the botany of New Zealand dune-plants, and to give such attention to 

 individual species as is required to extend our knowledge of the life require- 

 ments of certain plants mentioned or described in the above report. 



B. Field of Observation. 

 Description of Aspect and Plant Covering of the Dimes observed. 



The sand-dunes selected for examination are those of the seashore at 

 New Brighton, Canterbury, and form a portion of that large area of sand 

 which extends from the Sumner Estuary to the Waimakariri River. 



Extending along the greater part of the beach is a ridge of sand — the 

 foredune — fixed to a great extent naturally, and in part artificially, by the 

 native pingao (Scirpus frondosus) and the introduced marram-grass (Ammo- 

 phila arenaria). 



