246 Transactions. — Botany. 



merely to pave the way for much more thorough oecological 

 investigations. I have purposely usually only treated with 

 any detail those plants which are endemic, and in this case 

 the sins of omission are many, while a too rapid examination 

 of most of the formations has probably in some cases led to 

 error. 



Before concluding this introduction I must express my 

 most hearty thanks to all those residing on Chatham Island 

 with whom I came in contact. All sought to render me every 

 assistance possible, and whatever success may have attended 

 my visit is due principally to their great hospitality and ex- 

 treme kindness. Also, I must specially express my great 

 obligation to the following : Mr. F. A. D. Cox, Mr. A. Shand, 

 Mr. E. E. Chudleigh, Mr. W. Jacobs, Captain F. W. Hutton, 

 F.E.S., Mr. T. F. Cheeseman, F.L.S., Mr. D. Petrie, M.A., 

 F.L.S., and Mr. H. Carse. 



Physiography. 



For the sake of convenience Chatham Island may be 

 divided into three portions — a northern, a central, and a 

 southern. The northern portion consists of two peninsulas, 

 the western and the eastern, which are separated from one 

 another by the northern and widest portion of Te Whanga 

 Lagoon, and are connected only by the very narrow strip of 

 land which in the north separates the lagoon from the ocean. 



The western peninsula — Whareka on the map (49) — is 

 about 16^ miles in length from Te Eaki Point to Waipapa on 

 the lagoon, and some seven miles broad at its base from the 

 north of Waitangi Beach to the shore near Wharekauri. In 

 the north two triangular pieces of land jut out northwards, 

 culminating in Capes Young and Pattisson respectively. The 

 eastern peninsula is a narrow triangular piece of land nearly 

 nine miles and a half in length and five miles in width at the 

 base, its widest portion. The northern portion of the great 

 lagoon is eight miles and three-quarters in width, and is 

 separated from the ocean by a narrow strip of land varying 

 from a mile and a quarter in its widest to one- eighth of a mile 

 in its narrowest part. The central portion of the island is 

 occupied for a great part of its area by the southern part of Te 

 Whanga Lagoon. This is separated from Hanson Bay on the 

 east by a very narrow strip of land, varying from a mile and a 

 half to a quarter of a mile in width ; but on the west the land 

 bounded by Petre Bay is of greater size and importance, having 

 a width in the south of from two and a half to three miles 

 and in the centre a mile and a half, while in the north a broad 

 triangular piece of land stretches into the lagoon, measuring 

 seven miles and a quarter from Karewa to the Waitangi 

 Beach. 



