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or emarginate apex, and slightly hairy. The petals are six, 

 yellow, rounded or perhaps sometimes emarginate, obovate. 

 1-3 cm. by 8 mm., and at the base of each is one gland. The 

 peduncle branches near its apex, and in the case examined 

 was 8-flowered. 



The other plants of the floor of the subalpine scrub are too 

 well known to require any special mention. Formerly most 

 likely the Ranunculus was far more common, but it can now 

 only exist where secure from sheep. These have been pas- 

 tured on Mount Fyffe for many years, and have comphtely 

 changed the aspect of all the formations except those of rocks, 

 the subalpine scrub, and the forest ; in fact, up to 1,000 m. there 

 is little, so far as the subalpine meadow is concerned, to point 

 that it belongs to a lofty alpine range. 



According to McKay* the Kaikoura Mountains are very young 

 geologically — much younger, indeed, than the Southern Alps. 

 Such a range might be expected to show signs of initial en- 

 demism, and this seems to be the case in regard to the 

 Ranunculus, Cassinia, and perhaps Olearia coriacea, dealt with 

 above. On the other hand, relict endemism should, I take it, 

 be absent, whereas the highly specialised Olearia insignis is 

 peculiar to the Kaikouras, their foothills and environs. The 

 remarkable Helichrysum selago also is perhaps a similar case. 

 But before any statement of much worth can be made on this 

 interesting subject, careful lists require to be made of the Kai- 

 koura plants for comparison with similar lists from adjacent 

 more ancient mountains. 



4. Summary of Results. 



1 . There is a distinct zone of plants between the limit of the 

 forest and the subalpine meadow on many New Zealand moun- 

 tains, consisting chiefly of xerophytic shrubs, which may be 

 named "the subalpine scrub." 



2. This formation occurs on Mount Fyffe, but differs from 

 tvpical subalpine scrub in the small number of its species, and 

 in the fact that Cassinia albida, a plant peculiar to that 

 locality, is so abundant as not only to be dominant but in places 

 almost a pure formation. 



3. Ranunculus lobulatus, a plant also peculiar to that region, 

 is the principal plant of the ground beneath the scrub. 



4. Some of the shrubs are strongly xerophytic, especially 

 another plant peculiar to the range, Olearia coriacea^ while others 

 are much more mesophytic. 



* " On the Geology of Marlborough and South-east Nelson." Reports 

 of Geolog. Exploration during 1890-91, p. 5, 1892. 



