Cockayne. — Botanical Excursion to Southern Islands. 301 



tions is upset altogether, and a new flora and new plant- 

 formations arise. This must have taken place to a greater 

 or lesser extent in all civilised and semi-civilised lands, and 

 their floras and formations must be very different indeed to 

 what, they were in the dim past before man appeared upon 

 the scene. At the present time it seems to me that remote 

 regions, especially isolate(i islands such as those of the New 

 Zealand biological area, are almost the only places where the 

 general laws that govern such vegetation -modifications can 

 be found out, for the gradual changes from purely virgin for- 

 mations to final "reclamation" can be observed and the 

 factors bringing this about noted. But, so far as the New 

 Zealand biological area is concerned, such investigations must 

 be con(iucted at once, since year by year the actual virgin 

 formations decrease rapidly in area. Of all places, Campbell 

 Island offers the most favourable conditions for such studies, 

 since all the facts with regard to animals and settlement by 

 man are available, a settlement which has existed for only 

 seven years. In what follows some notes dealing with the 

 matter in hand, kindly furnished by Captain Bollons at my 

 request, have been freely made use of. 



(a.) The Snares. 

 These islands have been frequently visited by parties of 

 sealers, who lived there for some months at a time. Beyond 

 cutting down some of the trees and making a few tracks here 

 and there they have had little effect on the vegetation. Where 

 the Olearia lyallii trees were felled there is now, according to 

 Kirk (56, p. 215), a dense growth of Veronica elliptica mixed 

 with tussock. According to Captain Bollons, goats — perhaps 

 the most destructive of all quadrupeds — were introduced in 

 1890 ; but these have most likely died, none having been seen 

 since 1900. The following plants, according to Kirk, are 

 naturalised, but nothing is said as to their frequency or their 

 stations : Dactylis glomerata, Holcus lanatus, Poa annua. 

 Lohum 'perenne. The above and the following New Zealand 

 plants Kirk considers to have been introduced by the sealers : 

 Sonchus as2Jer, Jxincus bufonius, Hierochloe redolens, Deyeuxia 

 forsteri. 



(b.) The Auckland Islands. 



Captain A. Bristow, in 1807, landed pigs on Auckland 

 Island. Both Hooker and Bnderby reported them as very 

 numerous, and Captain Bollons considers that there are still 

 great numbers of them. 



During the Eoss expedition a ram and two ewes, pigs, 

 poultry, and rabbits were landed on Auckland Island, and 

 seeds of cabbage, turnip, mustard, cress, and other seeds were 

 sown. Gooseberry, currant, raspberry and strawberry plants 



