294 Transactions. 



is very vigorous, and this no doubt compensates for the ap- 

 parent rarity of regular propagation by seed. In sharp con- 

 trast with this was the abundance of seed that had set in Astelia 

 linearis, which is plentiful in all boggy stations on the open 

 uplands. Nowhere, I imagine, could we see a finer series of the 

 various forms which this variable species may assume under 

 different conditions of shade and water-supply than this locality 

 furnishes. The gradations observed leave no shadow of doubt 

 in my mind that Astelia grandis of Hooker f. is simply a shade- 

 and moisture-loving form of the smaller silky-leaved mountain 

 plant that has for long been taken to represent the type of Banks 

 and Solander's species. Mr. Cheeseman, who has for the pre- 

 sent united the two species, expresses the opinion that further 

 research may disclose characters to separate the silky mountain 

 form as a distinct species. This I consider most unlikely, as 

 the extreme states of the species here graduate into each other 

 by such insensible steps, and in such evident response to chang- 

 ing conditions, that there can be no reasonable doubt that 

 all belong to a single variable specific type. The lower uplands 

 of Mount Hector are well worth visiting were it only to examine 

 the evidence of this gradual transition. 



For some distance before entering the subalpine scrub, a 

 notable change in the prevailing vegetation is observed. Olearia 

 Colensoi, forming stout, low, widely branching shrubs, becomes 

 the predominant plant, with Panax Sinclairii, Panax anomalum, 

 Senecio elceagnifolius, and Pittosporum rigidum as subordinate 

 elements, and Uncinia ccespitosa, Uncinia filiformis. Libertia 

 pulchella, and Phormium Cookianum as undergrowth.. 



The width of the subalpine scrub is nowhere great on the 

 western slopes of Mount Hector. It consists of the usual dense, 

 stunted, level-topped, and almost impenetrable tangle of xero- 

 phytic shrubs common to this mountain - belt in the Xorth 

 Island. The principal plants here comprising the scrub were 

 Olearia Colensoi (much stunted), Dracopkyllum longifolium, 

 Panax anomalum, Panax Sinclairii, Senecio elceagnifolius, Gaul- 

 theria rupestris (in dense bushes), Pimelea G'nidia (also in dense 

 bushes), a dwarf form of Olearia nitida, Olearia lacunosa, Olearia 

 excorticata (rare), Pittosporum rigidum, Coprosma cuneata. Veronica 

 salicijolia (a short broad-leaved fomi). Phormium Coojcianum, 

 and Astelia nervosa, with Uncinia filiformis and Viola filicaidis 

 among the undergrowth. Along the sheltered edges of the 

 subalpine scrub grew abundance of the Bhorl mountain form of 

 Euphrasia cuneata (in full bloom), with tufts in wet spots of 

 Ourisia macrophylla and IlierocMoe redolens. In a drier station 

 here was seen what is probably the true Ourisia Colensoi. 



On emerging from the exasperating scrub you suddenly 



