302 Transactions. — Botany. 



a very long period. But as the animals which were intro- 

 duced increased in number and spread over the entire island 

 a very different state of affairs arose for the indigenous plants. 

 They too, like the Moriori, had been long isolated, and the 

 various species had become finally differentiated without any 

 regard to the attacks of grazing animals. Cattle and horses 

 roaming over the sand-dunes would loosen the sand, and also 

 feed in many instances on chose plants which bound the sand 

 together. 



There are few balances more finely adjusted than that be- 

 tween sand blown inland and its fixation by plants. Once 

 disturb that balance, no matter how slight the disturbance 

 may be, the equilibrium will be destroyed, and the resistance 

 of the sand-binding plants overcome. Thus the destruction 

 of a few plants growing on the dry sand of the shore just 

 above high-water mark, the great source from which all 

 inland-blown sand arises, will increase the volume of wind- 

 driven sand against which the dune plants have to contend. 



In Chatham Island, as pointed out before, quite a number 

 of plants grew on this upper strand, conspicuous amongst 

 which was the majestic forget-me-not Myosotidium nobile. 

 The leaves of this plant are much relished by sheep, and so, 

 as the settlements of both white man and Maori are usually 

 near the coast, this plant would very early on be attacked. 

 Not only do sheep eat the leaves, but pigs dig up and feed on 

 the great rhizomes, with the natural consequence that the en- 

 demic M. nobile, one of the most magnificent and interesting 

 plants in the world, is now all but extinct in the wild state. 

 A few plants still exist on the north coast of the island, 

 notably near Matarakau and Waikauia, and there are a few in 

 the neighbourhood of Eed Bluff, while below Te Awatapu 

 there is a bed of plants still in its virgin state ; but the long 

 line of this plant on the sea-shore, with its huge shining green 

 leaves and great heads of blue flowers, is lost to the world for 

 ever. Happily the plant is very amenable to cultivation in 

 favourable localities, and almost every settler's garden con- 

 tains some fine examples. Were a piece of ground fenced 

 in from sheep, &c, the plant would again reappear, as in the 

 case of an old Moriori grave-yard fenced in by its owner, 

 Mr. H. Grennel, and described by Professor A. Dendy in a 

 paper read at a recent meeting of our Institute (15). The 

 sand, no longer held by the strand plants, blew inland, became 

 piled up against the dune forests, and, gradually accumulating 

 and advancing inland, it finally buried them, so that now, 

 instead of a fringe of trees all round the sandy parts of the 

 coast, there are high moving dunes in many places. 



In the forest cattle and horses eat the foliage and bark of 

 the trees, at the same time breaking down the undergrowth and 



