Papers. 21 



and wild animals may resort for salt-licks and saline plants, such as 

 Salicornia australis and other plants of the salt-bush family (Chenopodiaceae) . 

 When food is scarce the giant perennial-stemmed grass Spinifex hirsutus 

 is voraciously eaten, as has been observed at Pencarrow Heads and 

 Titahi Bay. At the latter habitat marram-grass (Ammophila arundinacea) 

 was untouched, but horses had eaten the Spinifex off short. The pre- 

 ference which stock exhibit for Spinifex over marram should be taken 

 into account in considering the rival merits of the two grasses as 

 sand-binders. A fern, Gymnpgramme, once abundant on Wellington coasts, 

 is believed to have been exterminated by sheep and rabbits. Being an 

 annual it would be eaten before the spores were shed. 



At Rocky Bay (Titahi Bay) is a recently raised beach. High above 

 high-water mark is a boulder beach, then a sandy strip containing fresh- 

 water pools, the sand being covered with a closely cropped sward of 

 (1) Crantzia lineata (family Umbelliferae), (2) Samolus repens* (family 

 Primulaceae). (3) Ranunculus acaulis, named in the order of their relative 

 abundance. There are also present Atropis stricta (family Gramineae), 

 Cotula coronopifolia (family Compositae), and Selliera radicans (family 

 Goodenovieae). Sheep greedily browse on this sward and drink from the 

 pools, in which frogs are living. The term " salt meadow," which is applied 

 by ecologists to this formation, must therefore not be interpreted in a 

 superlative sense. Separating the salt meadow from the sea is a raised 

 rocky terrace. Sheep have been observed browsing on a sward of similar 

 composition near Island Bay. On the dry hillside above Rocky Bay 

 Eryngium vesiculosum (family Umbelliferae) has been closely eaten down 

 by sheep, and it is feared that Lepidium tenuicaule var. minor (family Cruci- 

 ferae), common here in 1907, has been entirely eaten out. On the rocky scarps 

 near here Aciphylla squarrosa was observed in March, 1908, to have been 

 badly eaten back. Further round the Titahi Bay peninsula, at the point 

 facing Plimmerton, are stretches of raised sandy beach containing the 

 remains of sea-animals and consequently much carbonate of lime. This 

 has resulted in a shallow black soil supporting a sweet herbage, largely the 

 naturalized alfilaria (Erodium circutarium, family Geraniaceae). The rabbits 

 are spoiling much of this by covering it with earth from their burrows. 



Changes in the indigenous flora by means of the spread of exotic species, 

 the seed of which is distributed by imported animals, are being brought about 

 in various localities. Examples which might no doubt be added to are the 

 African box-thorn (Lycium horridum), which is spreading in the Taranaki 

 bush ; the blackberry (Rubus fruticosus), in many parts of the North Island 

 and in the Nelson Province ; the elderberry (Sambucus niger), near Dun- 

 edin ; the gooseberry (Ribes grossularia), in many parts of the South Island ; 

 the Cape gooseberry (Physalis peruviana), in the Wanganui, Thames, and 

 Tauranga districts ; the ink-plant (Phytolacca octandra) ; and even the 

 strawberry (Fragaria vesca), in some parts of the Auckland Province. All 

 these fruits are spread by birds, especially the blackbird, and thereby the 

 native vegetation certainly is being displaced. f 





* At Havelock (Marlborough) the estuarial mud-flats are covered with Samolus, 

 and the cattle laboriously drag themselves through the mud to obtain the plant. 



•f- The spread of introduced weeds is not without its economical side. Sheep have 

 been fattened on fleabane (Erigeron strigosa) in North Auckland and on Atriplex patula 

 var. hastata in Canterbury, while the winged or star thistle (Carduus pycnocephalus) is, 

 according to Dr. Petrie, the salvation of the runholder in parts of Central Otago. 



