278 Transactions. — Botany. 



the "bush" between Te Whanga and Petre Bay there are 

 trees 15 in. in height or more, but usually they are smaller, 

 and vary from 6 m. to 13 m. On the outskirts of the forest, 

 and occasionally within its interior, especially in very wet 

 ground, Senecio huntii and Dracophyllum arboreum occur in 

 greater or less abundance. These do not properly belong 

 to this formation at all, and such portions may perhaps be 

 looked upon as remnants of a former tableland forest. 



Although the conditions under which the lowland forest 

 plant -formation exists are distinctly hygrophytic, and the 

 formation a hygrophytic one, belonging to Schimper's great 

 class of " rain forests," yet that part of the formation 

 which is exposed to almost constant and often very severe 

 winds — viz., the tree-tops — shows in its general form and in 

 the structure of tbe leaves of most of its members certain 

 xerophytic adaptations. Thus the general closeness of the 

 tree-tops, the density of the foliage, the remarkable uniformity 

 of height of the trees, and the lowness of their growth are in 

 direct relation to the strong sea-breezes which by turns strike 

 the forest from every side. Such direct action of the wind is 

 very markedly shown in those isolated groves of Corynocarpus 

 Icevigata which have been left in certain places when the re- 

 mainder of the forest has been destroyed by human agency, 

 their branches and leaves on the windward side forming a 

 dense flattened mass, in striking contrast to the more open 

 growth on the sheltered side. 



Eegarding the leaves themselves of the forest trees, those 

 of Gorynocaryus Icevigata are in appearance not unlike 

 those of the North American Magnolia grandiflora. They 

 are rather thick and leathery, bright-green in colour, ob- 

 long-lanceolate or sometimes obovate in shape. Their size 

 varies ; certain leaves measured varied in size of blade 

 from 12 cm. by 6 cm. to 9 cm. by 5-4 cm. The epider- 

 mis is three-layered. Pseudopanax chathamica has thick 

 leaves, dark dull-green in colour on the upper surface, 

 but much paler beneath. The leaf-blade measures 15 cm. or 

 16 cm. by 3 - 6cm., and points upwards at an angle of about 

 45 c to the axis of the shoot. The petiole is short and very 

 stout. There is a four- or sometimes three-layered epidermis 

 on the upper surface ; the outer wall of the first layer is 

 strongly cuticularized. Myrsine chathamica has leaves rather 

 thick and leathery, obovate or obovate-oblong, their lamina 

 5-5 cm. by 3 cm., rather dull-green in colour, and crowded 

 at the ends of the branches. Gorokia macrocarpa has leaves 

 lanceolate or oblong -lanceolate in shape, with the lamina 

 7 - 2cm. by 3 cm., or rather shorter, and the upper surface of 

 a shining dark-green colour. The under-surface is white, 

 with very dense tomentum. The margin of the leaf or the 



