304 Transactions.— Botany. 



whether it has been reduced through being eaten by stock or 

 through instability of the dunes. At any rate, either cause 

 can be traced to the advent of domestic animals. 



Besides changing the vegetation through feeding upon it, 

 horses and cattle have also had a very great influence on the 

 water-content of the soil. Wandering over the swampy and 

 boggy ground in search of the food which was originally very 

 plentiful there, they gradually consolidated the surface of the 

 ground. By this means many of the swamps of the island 

 have been turned into rich grazing land. The racecourse at 

 Waitangi is an excellent example, and such " reclamation " of 

 ground by grazing animals can be observed in every state of 

 progress from quite dry meadow to almost primeval swamp. 

 In this particular instance, too, the effect of the final close 

 cropping of the herbage by sheep may be observed, and the 

 change wrought by this on the vegetation estimated. Certain 

 plants which formerly did not form any large percentage of 

 the original vegetation, or which were altogether absent, now 

 make up the meadow land of the racecourse and the ground 

 between the low forest and sand-dunes from Waitangi to Te 

 One. On this piece of ground sheep in very large numbers 

 are constantly grazing, and yet the present vegetation 

 manages easily to hold its own, and has entirely replaced that 

 of the original swamp, which must in large measure have been 

 similar to that described under the heading " Swamp Forma- 

 tion." The plants consist almost entirely of those which pos- 

 sess a far-reaching and rapidly growing prostrate or sub- 

 terranean stem-system, which, through the great power of 

 vegetative increase which it gives, the abundant food-supply 

 which it contains, and its being secure from damage, enables 

 its possessors easily to resist the attacks of grazing animals. 

 At present the Waitangi Bacecourse is a flat meadow marked 

 with many small hillocks or unevennesses, which proclaim 

 the presence of former clumps of swamp vegetation. Every- 

 where the ground is covered with a thick turf. This is com- 

 posed of Crantzia lineata in very large quantities ; also Pratia 

 arenaria, the introduced Poa pratensis, a small species of 

 Juncus, Potentilla anserina, all in large quantities ; Hydro- 

 cotyle asiatica abundant, but hardly so much so as the pre- 

 ceding ; a variety of Epilobium caspitosum, Myriophyllum 

 pedunculatum, Lagenophora forsteri, Eleocharis gracillima, 

 and Gnaphalium collinum, also fairly plentiful. On the driest 

 portions of the hillocks is abundance of Gnaphalium filicaule. 

 The whole of these plants have stems which are either under- 

 ground or creep close to the surface, and several, as we have 

 seen, have great powers of adaptation either to wet or dry 

 conditions of soil. Also, some may not be much eaten by 

 sheep, but it is significant that the two which are especially 



