Cockatnk. — Plants of Chatham Island. 277 



from an eminence, so that the tree-tops can be looked clown 

 upon, it will be noticed that these form a compact and level 

 mass of greenery, no one tree rising above its fellows. Within 

 the forest the customary shrubby growths of the New Zealand 

 mixed forest are absent ; here, indeed, are no shrubs of any kind, 

 if Piper excels um be excepted, their place being taken up en- 

 tirely by tree ferns, many of which are of very great dimen- 

 sions. The ground itself may be bare, or covered with ferns 

 or various lowly plants. On the stems of the tree ferns grow 

 many epiphytes, seedling plants, and even young trees of no 

 small size. Two lianes, Bhipogonmn scandens and Muhlen- 

 heckia adpressa, climb to the tree-tops and mingle their foliage 

 with that of the trees, while the bamboo-like stems of the 

 former and the rope-like stems of the latter form at times a 

 complete entanglement which it is very difficult to penetrate. 



The soil of the forest consists sometimes of " red clay," 

 sometimes of peaty loam, or, in the case of the coastal forest, 

 of sand underlaid by peaty loam, while a considerable surface 

 layer of humus, resulting from the decaying vegetation, is 

 always present. The trees, with one exception, are evergreen, 

 their leaves numerous, of fair size, and in some cases rather 

 thick. Here and there the palm, Bhopalostylis batoeri(?), 

 raises up its huge and graceful leaves to the light through the 

 leafy canopy. The dense foliage of the tree-tops tends to 

 keep the interior of the forest moist and its atmosphere damp. 

 This is plainly manifest by the filmy ferns, liverworts, and 

 mosses, formerly common in many places, but now somewhat 

 rare in lowland forests ; indeed, their presence or absence 

 may be taken as a measure of the average humidity of the 

 atmosphere. 



As is well known, the New Zealand lowland forest con- 

 sists usually of a very great number of trees and shrubs, but 

 that of the Chatham Islands, on the contrary, consists of 

 quite a few species, and these occur in remarkably equal 

 quantities. To enumerate them in what is perhaps their 

 order of most frequent occurrence these are : (1) Coryuocarpus 

 laevigata, (2) Olearia traversii, (3) Coprosma chathamica, (4) Hy- 

 menanthera chathamica, (5) My r sine chathamica, (6) Corokia 

 macrocarpa, (7) Pseudopanax chathamica, (8) Veronica gigan- 

 tea, (9) Piper excelsum, (10) Bhopalostylis baueri(?). Besides 

 the above, Plagianthus chathamicus is abundant in some 

 localities. This is a very different combination indeed from 

 that of any New Zealand forest. Of the eleven trees six are 

 endemic, the palm is perhaps the same as that of the Ker- 

 madecs, Hymenanthera chathamica is recorded from only one 

 locality in New Zealand, and Myrsine chathamica from one 

 station in Stewart Island. All the trees vary in size accord- 

 ing to the character of the soil and extent of the forest. In 



