Cockayne. — Botanical Excursion to ISotuhern Islands. 241 



Besides the various species of plants enumerated above 

 as belonging to the coastal-rock formation, the following are 

 mentioned in the "Flora Antarctica": Myosotis capitata, 

 growing " on gravelly banks near the margins of woods close 

 to higii-water mark"; Gentiana ceriyia, "near the sea on 

 rocky islets in Rendezvous Harbour " ; Urtica austraiis, " on 

 the pebbly beach above high- water mark " ; and Urtica 

 aucklandica, " on the sea-beach." Of these plants, Urtica 

 austraiis is a very common plant near the sea on the shores 

 of the large lagoon in Chatham Island (23, p. 273), and also 

 it occurs abundantly at certain spots on the gravelly shore of 

 Dog Island and Centre Island, in Foveaux Strait; while Gen- 

 tiana cerina is closely related ecologically to G. saxosa, a 

 most abundant plant of the coastal turf in the neighbour- 

 hood of Foveaux Strait. 



Regarding the life-forms of the plants of the formation 

 under consideration, only those which are endemic need any 

 detailed description here, while of these those belonging more 

 strictly to the meadow, or to a zone between meadow and 

 shore, will be treated of further on. To the first category 

 belong Cotula lanata (GompositcB), Colohanthus muscoides 

 (CaryophyllacecB), Plantago sp. ( PlantaginacecB), Poa ramosis- 

 sviiia (GraminacecB), and Urtica aucklandica (UrticacecB). 



Cotula lanata has pale-green or sometimes brown prostrate 

 stems, which creep along the ground or hang down the face 

 of vertical cliffs. They are + 12 mm. in diameter, but are 

 usually rather wider in the horizontal than in the vertical 

 direction, thick, fleshy, and with a smooth surface. The 

 extremities of the stems are ascending, bending upwards and 

 bringing into the light the terminal leaf-rosettes, which con- 

 sist of a few spreading pale-green pinnatifid leaves. The 

 stems are marked at intervals of + 6 cm. with old leaf-scars, 

 and from some of the nodes roots pass downwards into the 

 rock-crevices, thus firmly anchoring the plant to the sub- 

 stratum. Shorter or longer lateral branches are frequently 

 given ofl" from the main stem. The leaves are fieshy and vary 

 somewhat in colour, those innermost and not fully developed 

 being of a darker green than the larger and more external 

 ones. In shape they are obovate, the blades deeply pinnatifid, 

 + 15 mm. long x + 12 mm. broad, and the segments are 

 toothed on the upper margin. Such teeth, + 2 mm. long, 

 are bent at an angle, frequently almost at a right angle, to the 

 plane of the leaf, thus making one-third. of the assimilating 

 surface vertical or nearly so, while the remaining two-thirds 

 is horizontal. The fleshy pale-coloured petiole is nearly twice 

 as long as the lamina, and possesses a broad sheathing 

 base + 5 mm. long, furnished with a membranous margin. 

 The petiole and midrib are covered, especially in young leaves, 



16— Trans. 



