Cockayne. — Plants of Chatham Island. 265 



species of Trifolium. Within a few metres of high-water 

 mark the strand, sloping upwards, gradually merges into the 

 gently sloping peaty ground, which in some places is oarpeted 

 with grasses, and in others has small belts of Olearia traversii 

 coming right down to the shore. 



Just at the junction of shore and meadow is a turf of 

 Selliera radicans, a plant with a slender stem creeping on or 

 close to the surface of the ground, and with numerous short 

 roots descending into the gravel ; its thick leaves also are 

 pressed close against the ground. That very curious umbel- 

 liferous plant, Crantzia lineata, also forms a turf in similar 

 situations. Its rush-like hollow leaves are described by Asa 

 Gray as "petioles in place of leaves" (22, p. 205), while 

 Hooker, in the " Flora Antarctica " (30), speaking of specimens 

 from the Plate Eiver, remarks that the leaves sometimes ex- 

 pand into a plane linear-lanceolate obtuse lamina. Goebel 

 calls attention to the same fact (21, pp. 45, 46), and shows 

 clearly that the peculiar structure of Crantzia is a protection 

 against drought, although the South American form grows in 

 swampy meadows. How efficient such an adaptation is for 

 xerophytic conditions, and yet how it can live also in hygro- 

 phytic "stations, is well illustrated by the Chatham Island 

 plant, which I collected in very wet swamps, on fairly dry 

 sand dunes, on rocks by the sea exposed to frequent drench- 

 ing with salt water, on extremely dry limestone rocks, and in 

 the shade of the forest on moist peaty ground. Near New 

 Brighton, Canterbury, New Zealand, it grows in a Phormium 

 swamp on the bank of the Eiver Avon, subject to some hours' 

 immersion daily in water, which is often slightly brackish, 

 and even at times extremely salt. 



Growing near the rocks which jut out of the stony shore 

 is Urtica australis, a very large nettle, which, as will be seen 

 further on. forms thickets in some parts of the island. At Te 

 Whakaru it is not very tall, being 30 cm. to 35 cm. in height, 

 but the leaves measured 15 cm. by 10 cm. Its thick stems, 

 15 cm. in diameter, enable it to resist the wind. Here and 

 there on the shore grows the introduced Plantago media, 

 which is so much reduced in size and changed generally that 

 it might easily be taken for a different species, were it not for 

 examples of the type growing in a position more favourable 

 for its development further inland. 



No doubt a number of other plants occur as constituents 

 of this formation, but none are mentioned in my notes. But, 

 at any rate, the formation is distinctly a modified one, for not 

 only have exotic plants invaded it, but it must have been 

 much changed by sheep, since Te Whakaru was one of the 

 first European settlements on the island. 



