Cockayne. — Plants of Chatham Island. 255 



some extent, and a little later on planted orchards. With the 

 fruit-trees came over a grass, Mr. Shand informs me. This I 

 have not seen, but it was probably one of the first introduced 

 plants to spread spontaneously on the island. As the fruit- 

 trees would not grow without shelter, the missionaries made 

 use of the indigenous Olearia traversii for this purpose, and it 

 answered admirably. 



The most important event for the future of the vegetation 

 was the introduction of sheep, cattle, and horses. In 1841 

 Mr. Hanson, who had visited Chatham Island on behalf of the 

 New Zealand Company, sent a few cows and a bull to be pas- 

 tured on the island. At a later date most of these cattle and 

 their offspring were removed to New Zealand, but a few were 

 secured by the missionaries. Shortly afterwards a few merino 

 sheep were brought to the island, but they did not evidently 

 increase to any great extent, for in 1855 there were probably 

 only about two hundred sheep on the island, and these mainly 

 in the neighbourhood of Ouenga. At a little later date than 

 the cattle and sheep, horses were introduced, but for a long 

 time they were scarce, and it was not until the year 1868 that 

 they became wild in the unsettled districts. Cattle must have 

 become wild much earlier, for Mr. Shand tells me that traps 

 were made for them in the early part of the " sixties," and at 

 the present time they are very numerous indeed on the table- 

 land. It was not until the year 1866 that sheep-stations were 

 organized as at present, at which time there would be perhaps 

 two thousand sheep on the island. Since the above date sheep, 

 horses, and cattle have increased enormously, horses as well 

 as cattle being wild in many places and in considerable 

 numbers, while some sixty thousand sheep roam over the 

 whole of the island. 



In addition to the animals many exotic plants have come 

 over in the train of the white man, every one of which, when 

 once established, must play a part in altering the aspect of the 

 different plant-formations of which it is able to become a 

 member. 



The direct influence of the white man on the vegetation 

 has not been very great, cultivation not having been under- 

 taken on a very large scale. 



Plant-formations. 

 In an island so small as Chatham Island, where herb- 

 ivorous animals have roamed almost everywhere at their 

 own sweet will ever since their first introduction, and where, 

 moreover, much of the vegetation has been burnt again and 

 again, hardly any of the plant-covering can still be in its 

 virgin condition. On this account the plant-formations may 

 be divided into the recent, or modified, and the original, or 



