304: Tra7isaction!<. — Botany. 



were planted, and seeds of lettuce, turnip, carrot, parsnip, 

 pumpkin, and other vegetables were sown, on the south side 

 of Terror Cove, while on Adams Island several young trees 

 were planted and seed sown at the head of Garnley Har- 

 bour (90). Phormium tcnax, as I have pointed out above, 

 is an introduced plant, and it is distinctly on the increase ; 

 if it finally spreads on to the wet open ground it may con- 

 siderably modify the Pleurophyllum formation. It should 

 also be able to thrive on the sand-dunes, and everywhere, 

 indeed, except in the subalpine region. Finally, I may add 

 that the question of the effect of introduced animals, &c., on 

 the vegetation of the Auckland Group, owing to the many 

 animals that have roamed there for some time, and the length 

 of time that introduced plants have had a footing in some part 

 or other of the group, is a matter of considerable complexity, 

 and cannot be grappled with except by a long residence in the 

 group. Generally speaking, however, I think it safe to con- 

 clude that almost all the forest and scrub formations and by 

 far the largest part of the remainder are, to all intents and 

 purposes, in their virgin condition. 



(c.) Antipodes Island. 



Here the conditions are very much more simple than 

 in the Auckland Islands, for it was not until the year 1887 

 that any exotic animals were introduced. Since then, and up 

 to the last visit of the " Hinemoa," in July, 1903, cattle, 

 sheep, and goats have been landed on several occasions, 

 but such invariably died after three or four years. At the 

 present time there are on the island only the three heifers 

 which were landed in July last. It is very easy to see how 

 such tussock slopes and swamps as those I have described are 

 most unfavourable for the well-being of domestic animals. 

 Sheep, thickly clothed with wool through not being shorn, if 

 they once fall down in such tussock meadows can never rise 

 again, and must perish. Cattle certainly may get on better, 

 and might make tracks through the tussocks ; but wliether 

 they could thrive exposed to the furious gales in the more 

 open lands of the interior is questionable. It seems highly 

 probable that the peculiar vegetation, aided by the climate, 

 might quite well prove the victor in the struggle with 

 any introduced domestic animals left uncared-for on the 

 islaird. Were the place to be turned into a sheep-run, 

 where the sheep were annually shorn and the tussock burnt 

 off, then, indeed, the face of nature might be changed, and 

 one of the most wonderful natural museums in the world be 

 destroyed, which would, indeed, be a scientific calamity in no 

 wise to be compensated by the trivial and problematical gain 

 that could be acquired by sheep-farming on Antipodes Island. 



