270 Transactions. — Botany. 



formed during Post-pliocene periods — that is to say, in the 

 epoch during which New Zealand possessed its last great 

 geographical extension. Tt was not, therefore, before the 

 very end of the Pliocene that Campbell Island as it now ex- 

 ists appeared above the surface of the sea." This account 

 of Filhol's differs very materially from that of Hector; as to 

 which is the more correct I can offer no opinion. 



THE PLANT-FOEM.\TIONS. 



The plant-formations consist, so far as I was able to ascer- 

 tain, of the following: (1) Stony shore; (2) scrub; (3) lower 

 tussock meadow ; (4) subalpine tussock meadow ; (5) Rost- 

 kovia formation ; (6) subalpine rocks. There are doubtless 

 also lowland swamps, maritime-cliff vegetation, running-water 

 vegetation, while possibly certain combinations of plants 

 which I did not meet with may constitute formations or asso- 

 ciations. Indeed, here as elsewhere for these Southern Islands 

 my account and classification of the plant-formations is but 

 provisional. Most of the life-forms of the endemic members 

 of the formations have been dealt with in the part of this 

 paper referring to Auckland Island, but one or two more 

 common in Campbell Island than in the Auckland Group, 

 as well as those endemic to the island under consideration, 

 are dealt with when describing the formations of which they 

 form a part. 



1. Stony Shore. 



An extremely rapid examination was made of the stony 

 shore along the south of North-east Harbour. Here Ligusti- 

 cum latifolium comes right on to the stones of the beach, 

 accompanied by Stilbocarpa polaris, which does not approach 

 so near to the water's edge. Creeping over the stones is 

 Cotnla lanata, and growing here and there amongst tliem is 

 a small grass, in general appearance not unlike DantJionia 

 australis (11, pi. xxxi.), but which I cannot identify until a 

 specimen in cultivation flowers. Wherever rocks are present 

 are the cushions of Colohanthus vmscoides. Altogether, this 

 formation is very similar to that of the stony sea-shore of 

 Auckland Island. 



2. Dracophyllum Scrub. 



There is no arborescent growth to vvliich one can with 

 truth apply the term "forest" on Campbell Island. The 

 scrub may vary considerably ni height according to the 

 degree of shelter it receives, but everywhere there are only 

 shrubs, and not low trees with bare trunk and spreading 

 crown beneath which one can walk, as in the forests of 

 Auckland Island. Most probably the absence of forest de- 

 pends upon the slightly stronger winds and much less shelter 



