264 Transactions. — Botany. 



tapering slightly from below upwards, and 2o mm. thick x 

 5 cm. broad towards its centre. The leaves are pale-green in 

 colour. On the blade and sheath are a few straggling hairs. 

 Numerous roots are given off from the leafy portion of the 

 plant, but only a few from the naked creeping stems, and 

 these roots will function especially as holdfasts. Cotula pro- 

 pinqjia is intermediate between the above and Cot. lanata, so 

 need not be further dealt with here. 



Cetmisia vcrnicona has the leaves in densely crowded 

 rosettes 3-1 cm. in diameter in one case measured; but they 

 must very frequently be much larger than this, for the leaves, 

 according to Hooker (47, p. 136), may reach the length of 

 4 in. (10"lcm.). Below are the remains of many dead leaves. 

 The leaves are bright-green, highly polished and shining, 

 extremely coriaceous, and with margins recurved. The 

 rosettes frequently form large patches. Veronica benthami 

 is described in the part relating to Campbell Island. The 

 remaining plants (spermaphytes and pteridophytes) of this 

 formation are more or less common in New Zealand, and 

 need not be dealt with here. 



Perhaps that which is most noticeable about the Plcnro- 

 vhylkim meadow when comparing it with related ecological 

 formations in New Zealand — as, for instance, a western sub- 

 alpine meadow in the South Island — is the very different colour- 

 ing of the flowers. In the subalpine meadow is the dazzling 

 white of Ranuncuhis lyallii or the various species of Gelmibia, 

 the yellow-throated but otherwise white Ourisia macrocarpa, 

 white gentians, white Ligusticums, the yellow-, white-, or cream- 

 coloured Senecio scorzoncrioides, and amongst the slirubs are 

 white-flowered Olearias and Veronica.s (these sometimes with 

 a shade of lilac) and yellow Senecios ; in short, with hardly an 

 exception, all amongst flowers in any way conspicuous are 

 white or yellow.* In the Pleurophyllum meadow, on the con- 

 trary, are : P. tspexiostim, with disc-florets purple anci ray- 

 florets purplish-white ; P. crinifcrnm, with flower-heads deep- 

 brown ; Li(j. iatifolium, with large umbels of reddish flowers; 

 Lig. antiiioduvi of similar colour to its ally ; Gelmisia verni- 

 cosa, with rays white and disc-florets deep-purple ; BuLhinelia 

 rossw, orange-coloured ; Veronicabenthami,diee'p-h\\\e ; Gcntiana 

 carina, white with stripes of briglit-red ; Myosotis capilata, 

 violet-blue fading to purple ; Epilol'invi confertifolium, pink. 

 Moreover — and this is a very significant fact — with the excep- 

 tion of the Myosotis, a rare plant in New Zealand, the whole of 

 the above are endemic, and they are also the dominant plants 



• The alpine flora of Australia, as evidenced by the plants of Mount 

 Kosciusco, have, according to Mr. J. H. Maiden, "an enormous pre- 

 ponderance of white flowers," while yellow flowers come next in num- 

 ber (75a, p. 29). 



