1)1 i Transactions. 



ward any facts as to the causes determining the presence of 

 meadow or scrub, though doubtless it is largely a matter of degree 

 of exposure to the prevailing winds. Captain Bollons made 

 one most interesting discovery. At the base of the Phormium 

 plants he observed large numbers of the great snail Placostylus 

 hongii, var. novoseelandica, now quite extinct on the mainland, 

 but still occasionally to be found on the small island, Cape Maria 

 van Diemen. 



(d.) The Salt Meadow. 



Here the presence of that collection of halophytes to which 

 I am giving the name " salt meadow" for comparative purposes 

 is dependent rather on the sea-spray blown inland, and on the 

 lack of shelter, than on any other factors. The ground is more 

 or less wet, in some places water lying on the surface. Here the 

 vegetation is richest, the dominant plant being the rush-like 

 and strongly xerophytic Leptocarpus simplex (Restiaceo?). Other 

 plants of this formation are : Lobelia anceps (Campanulacece), 

 Juncus maritimus, var. australiensis, and J. planifolius (Jun- 

 cacece), Paspalum distichum and Deyeuxia billardieri (Graminece), 

 Mariscus ustulatus (Cyperacea?), Apium prostratum (UmbellifercB), 

 Samolus repens, var. stricta (Primulacew), and Carmicha?lia wil- 

 liamsii (Leguminosai). If my identification of this latter plant 

 be correct — and both Messrs. Petrie and Cheeseman, to whom I 

 have shown specimens, are of opinion that it is so — its presence 

 on the Poor Knights is very remarkable.* Between the " salt 

 meadow " and the scrub is the zone of Phormium before men- 

 tioned, which may perhaps be included in this formation. 



Regarding the occurrence of Carmicho3lia williamsii a few 

 words may not be out of place. Up to the present this most 

 striking plantf of a remarkable genus has only been recorded 

 from the East Cape district, where it is rare and local. The 

 only explanation that I ran suggest as to its occurrence in two 

 places so far apart is that it was once much more widely dis- 

 tributed along the east coast of northern New Zealand, but 

 shrinkage of the land-surface has led to a fiercer struggle for 

 existence, which has caused its extinction except in a few specially 

 situated localities. It is just on islands which once upon a 

 time formed part of the mainland, or in peculiar stations such 

 as the cliffs of the East Cape, that relics of a former vegetation 

 might be expected. The North Cape, at no very distant date 



* Mr. Cheeseman has also, since writing the above, very kindly L r i\cn 

 me an opportunity of examining a type specimen of C. australis, var. lata, 

 from the herbarium of the late Mi-. T. Kirk, which certainly is quite dis- 

 tinct from the Poor Knights plant. 



t See fig. 3, pi. xxvi. Featon, E. H.. " The Art Album of the New Zea- 

 land Flora." 



