Herbiott. — Plants from the Southern Islands. 409 



Phyllachne clavigera (F. Muell.), Hook. f. 



" Large green cushions, some of great size, the extremities 

 of the shoots rooting in the decayed leaves now turned into 

 peat, which make up the chief bulk of the cushions. Each 

 main shoot branches near its extremity, giving off several 

 short shoots l - 5cm. in length, the upper 6 mm. of which are 

 densely clothed with very small imbricating green leaves. These 

 final shoots are all pressed tightly together, and make apparently 

 a solid convex mass. The leaves are very thick, coriaceous, 

 expanded at the base, convex on the under (outer) surface, 

 but slightly concave on the lower half of the upper (inner) sur- 

 face, but flat on its upper half. They are not quite erect, but 

 th.e globose tips point slightly outwards."* 



This plant was described by Hooker (1847) as Forstera clavi- 

 gera, Hook, f., but its claim to be included in the genus Phyl- 

 lachne has since been established. 



Hab. — " Lord Auckland Group and Campbell Island : on 

 the mountains in turfy and boggy places ; very common. "f 



The semi-bog of the subalpine meadow of Auckland Island 

 may be recognised " by the presence of the large, round, bright- 

 green, dense cushions of Phyllachne clavicjera.' n % 



On Campbell Island it forms " large, bright-green, hard 

 cushions " where the ground is wettest in the subalpine tussock 

 meadow, and also among the subalpine rocks under similar 

 conditions. 



This plant is a " bog xerophyte of the typical form of many 

 other antarctic cushion plants" (p. 265), which reaches its 

 climax in the vegetable-sheep -(Faoulia mammillaris) of New 

 Zealand. 



Anatomy (fig. 19). — This section is taken through the globose 

 tip of a leaf, and is more or less hemispherical. The flatter 

 surface represents the inner side of the leaf, and the convex the 

 outer side. There is a distinct thick and wrinkled cuticle {cut.) 

 surrounding the leaf. Underneath is the epidermis (ep.) of thick 

 walls and rather large cells ; stomata (st.) occur on any part 

 of the epidermis. The chlorenchyma (chlor.) consists of a homo- 

 geneous mass of rounded cells, which occupy the entire section 

 of the leaf. The outer portion is perhaps more densely filled 

 with chlorophyll, and the cells are more closely packed, than 

 in the central portion. Sometimes the cells appear to be ar- 

 ranged in chains, which, arising from the epidermal cells, con- 

 verge towards the centre of the leaf where lies the vascular 



* Cockayne (1903), p. 280. 

 t Hooker (1847), vol. i, p. 38. 

 t Cockayne (1903), p. 265. 



