Petrie. — Account of a Visit to Mount Hector. 293 



in this opinion. To any botanist who has leisure, a study of 

 the materials to be readily met with on this ridge will certainly 

 yield important data for settling the relations in rank of D. 

 axillaris and D. colorata. It is probable that the leaf-variations 

 under notice are mainly due to the stronger insolation experi- 

 enced at the higher levels, where the competing vegetation is 

 lower and much less crowded. 



As noted above, Coprosma Colensoi here forms quite an im- 

 portant element in the shrubby forest undergrowth. It varies 

 but little with elevation, all the plants showing rather large 

 petiolate leaves of uniform size, shape, and texture, except at 

 and near the tips of the higher branchlets, where they become 

 narrower and more obtuse. The leaves are in general f in. 

 to 1 in. long, and ^ in. to | in. wide, and are very similar to those 

 of C. fcetidissima, also fairly abundant here. Nowhere in this 

 neighbourhood did I see any plant approaching the narrow 

 obtuse-leaved forms of the species that abound in the higher 

 wooded parts of the Hutt Valley and elsewhere in the eastern 

 wooded uplands of the North Island. At the time of my visit 

 the plants were all past flower ; a few in opener situations had 

 ripe drupes, oblong in outline, nearly as thick as a pea, and of 

 a deep-red colour ; but in general the drupes were only half- 

 grown. The pyrenes were large for the size of the drupes. 

 Further inquiry must settle whether the narrow-leaved form 

 which I have distinguished as C. Banksii is really conspecific 

 with the plant under notice. 



The shade form of Astelia nervosa is plentiful on the 

 higher parts of the ridge, while the mountain form abounds 

 in wonderful profusion for 600 ft. or 800 ft. above the al- 

 pine scrub. The shade form had long, rather thm, glabrous 

 leaves, and grew in small compact tufts. The pistillate 

 plants bore abundance of half-ripe fruit. As the top of 

 the ridge became more exposed, the leaves became shorter, 

 more coriaceous, more or less silky, and more strongly tufted, 

 while on the higher open slopes the plants grew in wide 

 low tufts or tussocks, with foliage of a greyish-white or greyish- 

 yellow hue, so abundant was the- coating of silky hairs. Though 

 thousands of plants were seen on the open uplands, and they 

 were so abundant and slippery that walking over them was 

 slow and fatiguing work, I did not see a single plant in flower 

 or fruit. This is a very singular fact, and is probably due to 

 flies being practically absent from this habitat during the flower- 

 ing season, owing to the boisterous winds that almost constantly 

 prevail here at that time. If the pollen were carried by the 

 wind from the staminate to the pistillate flowers, a fair number 

 of plants would surely have set fruit. Vegetative multiplication 



