292 Transactions. — Botany. 



with wiiite flowers vertically streaked with red. He also 

 describes the plant as perennial, but I think that most pro- 

 bably it is a biennial. Mr. H. J. Matthews, who cultivated 

 this plant, agrees with me in this conclusion. 



(c.) Inland Tussock Slopes. 



In many respects this sub-formation is similar to that last 

 described, but it contains very much more Stilhocarpaijolaris ; 

 and, in addition, the following plants, which, if they occur at 

 all on the flat meadow^, are very rare : Urtica australis, Poa 

 foliosa, Senecio antijjoda, Curex apj^ressa, and rather large 

 bushes of a species of Coprosma — perhaps C. ciliata. Unfortu- 

 nately, I neglected to bring away specimens of this latter 

 plant, but it did not seem the same to me as C. ciliata of 

 Auckland and Campbell Islands. The ordinary grass-tussock 

 and Asindium vestitum are much larger than are the same 

 species in the flat meadow, owing probably to the better 

 drainage of the slope. The soil is, generally speaking, drier 

 than that of sub-formation (h), and shallow gullies change the 

 conditions with regard to wind, in consequence of which a 

 transition between "scrub" and "tussock slope" is there 

 present. In certain places the ground is more or less bare, 

 where the giant petrel has its "rookeries," and in consequence 

 the soil must be much enriched with its manure. 



As one painfully toils up the hillside huge plants of 

 Aspidinm vestitum l-5m. tall, with stout trunks and spreading 

 fronds, are encountered grow^ing in company with tussocks 

 (equally large of Poa foliosa and Gar ex appressa, amongst 

 which are dotted large flat-topped bushes of the Coprosma, 

 mentioned above or small colonies of the large-leaved nettle 

 Urtica australis. The " trunks " of these tussocks are of great 

 size, and when the plant dies large mounds of peat remain. 

 Seen at a distance the Aspidium makes large black-coloured 

 blotches on the hillside. Frequently fern, tussock, and scrub 

 give place to great masses of IStilbocarpa p)olaris, its large 

 rhizome creeping on the surface of the ground, and the large 

 leaves, quite close together, raised aloft on their exceedingly 

 stout petioles, the whole mass of leaves and leaf-stalks form- 

 ing dense thickets. One colony of this remarkable plant mea- 

 sured 11m. X 3m., but those met with further on, of which 

 no measurements were taken, were of nmch larger size. With 

 the Stilhocarpa are mixed few other plants, the rhizomes oc- 

 cupying the ground and the leaves excluding the light. The 

 Coprosma bushes are of equal height to the fern and tussock 

 of grass or sedge. The leafy top is about l-8m. in diameter 

 and almost semi-globular in shape, its ultimate twigs ex- 

 tremely dense and leafy for a depth of 16 cm. The leaves 

 are very numerous, but quite small and narrow — about 7 mm. 



