Cockayne.— i:foto/itca/ Excursion to Southern Islands. 281 



6'5cm. in diameter. The leaves are dark-green, pinnate, 

 with three leaflets on each side, thick and fleshy, the petiole 

 deeply channelled and broadening gradually to the base. 

 The largest leaflets measure 5 mm, x 6 mm. The outer- 

 most leaves are flattened against the stones, the remainder 

 spreading upwards and outwards at about an angle of 45° 

 from the vertical. The buds appearing on cultivated plants 

 at the end of October are sheltered by the innermost leaves. 

 A transverse section of a leaf shows a thin-walled epidermis 

 on both surfaces, having also equally abundant stomata both 

 on the upper and under surface, a two-layered palisade, and 

 an open spongy parenchyma. This structure is remarkably 

 hygrophytic for a plant whose characteristic station is stony 

 debris, and it eloquently testifies to the abundant moisture of 

 the atmosphere. The closeness, also, with which the plant 

 hugs the soil will protect it much from the action of the wind, 

 and the water of the stony substratum will be quite difi'erent 

 in its humus-acid content from that of the wet peat. 



6. Subalpine Bocks. 



The sunjmits of the hills of Campbell Island are very 

 rocky. The final peak of Mount Honey is composed entirely 

 of rocks, much weathered, as may be well imagined in a 

 situation so exposed. The summit of the ridge of Lyall's 

 Pyramid consists for a large part of steep rocky faces ; in fact, 

 in many places such may be called clifi's. In these rocks are 

 frequently hollows, small gullies, ledges, irregularities, and 

 crevices, in or on which are often considerable quantities of 

 peat ; in fact, peat is always present wherever it is possible 

 for such to lodge. In many cases the rocks drip with water, 

 or sometimes thev are drv ; but even where this is the case 

 the rock, owing to the excessive moisture of the climate, 

 offers by no means an unfavourable station for certain forms 

 of plant-life. In a dry climate rock-vegetation may be scanty 

 or perhaps altogether wanting in places, but there are hardly 

 any spots entirely unsuitable for plants. 



The rock-plants proper are few in number. Leaving out 

 of the question certain njosses, liverworts, and lichens, they 

 are : Ligusticuvi anti2:iochi7n (Umbelliferce) ; Colobanthns subu- 

 latus (Caryo'phyllacea) ; Abrotanella rosularis, Abrotanella 

 spathulata (Comjjositce) ; Hymenophyllum muUifidum (subal- 

 pine form) ; Polypodiiim austr pnmila (Filices) ; one or two 

 small unidentified species of grass {Graminacece) . This is a 

 very small list, while the whole of the species, moreover, 

 occur in other formations, and in the case of the Ligusticum 

 and Hyinenophyllum in great profusion. 



An exact account of the distribution of the vegetation o 



