Cockayne. — Botanicai Excurbion to Soutitern Islands. 277 



3mm. long; lamina 1-6 cm. x I'lcm., veins distinct. No 

 pits, so common in Goprosma,* were noticed on the back of 

 the leaf. 



With the bushes of Coprosma ciliata, Aspidium vestitum 

 is frequently mixed. Here and there, growing through the 

 bushes or mixed with the tussock, were the rather shaggy 

 naked stems of Veroyiica hcnthami, a shrub confined to the 

 Campbell and Auckland Islands. These stems are marked 

 with many old leaf-scars, but above are quite green. The 

 leaves are crowded together at the extremities of the branches ; 

 they are thick, rather soft, narrow obovate-oblong in shape, 

 dark-green, and their margins are edged with a pale-coloured 

 toment/um. In size they are about 3'5 cm. x 1-4 cm. With 

 regard to the light, the surfaces of the lower and larger leaves 

 are horizontal or frequently arch downwards somewhat. The 

 structure is that of a typical dorsi-ventral leaf. Nearer the 

 apex of the shoot the leaves are smaller than those below, 

 broader in proportion to their length, and loosely imbricating. 

 The flowers are in racemes, which lengthen considerably 

 during flowering, each flower subtended by a very large 

 green leaf-like bract. The petals are a most clear violet-blue 

 marked by very narrow lines of a still deeper blue. 



Where the ground becomes wetter the character of the 

 formation changes. There the surface is carpeted with the 

 brown fronds of Lomaria procera, amongst and over which 

 trailed the silvery-leaved Helichrysuin prostratum. Through 

 the Lomaria grow tussocks of Garex appressa. 



The following extract from my notebook affords some idea 

 of a general view of a piece of lowland meadow : " Large 

 breadths of Lomaria procera mixed with stunted Garex 

 appressa, low bushes 16 cm. tall of Goprosma parviflora, 

 little conical cypress-like shrubs of Dracophyllujii scoparium 

 30 cm. to 60 cm. tall dotted here and there, yellow tussock 

 waving in the breeze everywhere except where Lomaria 

 procera is abundant." These little Dracophyllum shrubs 

 have naked dark-coloured stems for half or less than half 

 their height. 



From the above it may be seen that there are two dis- 

 tinct associations of plants included under my term " lowland 

 tussock meadow," more or less sharply separated from one 

 another by the amount of moisture in the ground : on the 

 drier ground silver-tussock is dominant, and on the wetter a 

 fern — Garex association. All the same, many of the meadow 

 plants are common to both associations, and appear to thrive 

 equally well either in the drier or moister ground. It must 



* Greensill, N. A. R. : " Structure of Leaf of certain Species of 

 Coprosma." Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. xxxv., pp. 342, 355. 1903. 



