296 Transactions. — Botany. 



since they are at the same time more or less elastic, while the 

 suffruticose extremities of the ultimate branchlets can yield 

 very considerably to the wind-pressure. The branches are 

 marked with many old leaf -scars and covered with a pale 

 bark, which is somewhat papery and readily peels off. The 

 flower-heads are in subcorymbose panicles, pyramidal in shape, 

 10 cm. to 14 cm. long by 10 cm. broad through the thickest 

 portion. Flower-stalks and involucres are densely covered 

 with glandular hairs, which, together with those of the leaves, 

 give out a peculiar aromatic odour to the atmosphere. 



Te Awatapu Forest. 



Standing on the edge of the cliffs not far from the Trig, 

 station which marks the highest point on Chatham Island, 

 one looks down upon a large piece of forest lying in a basin 

 far below. This basin is formed from a great mass of the 

 upper surface of the tableland, which, probably undermined by 

 water, long ago fell into the sea below. In some places per- 

 pendicular cliffs, still devoid of vegetation, show whence 

 this great mass of land must have fallen. In other places 

 the cliffs are covered with a good deal of soil, in which is 

 growing a luxuriant vegetation. This forest at the time 

 of my visit was in its virgin condition. A few sheep cer- 

 tainly had just previously found their way down the steep 

 cliffs, but their presence was not felt by the vegetation. 

 Eecently the forest, as mentioned in the introduction, has 

 been opened up to stock by means of a cut track, so it seems 

 very necessary to put on record its general appearance. 



The ground of the forest consists of clay mixed with a 

 certain proportion of peat, the clay being derived from that 

 stratum which doubtless underlies all the tableland bogs. 

 The surface, which as a whole slopes to the sea, from which 

 it is separated by a jagged wall of rocks, is very uneven ; the 

 soil at the time of the landslip must have been heaped up in 

 some places, and with corresponding hollows in others. This 

 unevenness has also been accentuated by erosion. Through 

 the centre of the forest a stream flows, which puts one in 

 mind of some small New Zealand mountain torrent. This 

 stream is fed by the never-failing supply of water from the 

 bogs above, whence the main branch leaps down the pre- 

 cipitous cliffs as a waterfall. 



The forest, as pointed out before, resembles in part the 

 tableland and in part the lowland forest. It differs from 

 the tableland forest in that it contains Plagianthus chat- 

 hamicus, Piper excelstim, and Bhipogonum scandev.s, in large 

 quantities ; but, on the other baud, Dracophyllum arborcum 

 and menecio huntii are plentiful. The presence of Coriaria 

 ruscifoiia, here quite a tree, also separates this formation 



