Hebeiott. — Plants from the Southern Islands. 379 



Last year, however, Dr. Cockayne accompanied the boat on 

 its winter trip, and the results of his investigations have been 

 published in the " Transactions of the New Zealand Institute."* 

 This paper gives much the fullest description of the different 

 plant formations, as regards their nature and extent, and is a 

 very valuable addition to the history of the botany of New 

 Zealand. There is some detail given of the more important 

 plants concerning their adaptability by their structure to their 

 surroundings, and in some cases a hasty description of the 

 anatomical structure is given. In this paper I propose to go 

 more fully into the anatomical structure of the leaves of certain 

 of these plants, to show in what way the plant adapts itself to 

 meet the peculiar conditions of the climate. The leaf is the 

 organ chiefly affected in cases of this kind, since the most urgent 

 need of the plant is that it should be able to obtain or retain 

 a sufficient supply of moisture. This induces the so-called 

 xerophytic characters which are mainly met with in the leaf. 



The material on which I have been able to work has been 

 growing ready to my hand. Dr. Cockayne, during his visit to 

 the islands, succeeded in making a very valuable collection of 

 living plants, and this he has very kindly presented to the bio- 

 logical laboratory of Canterbury College for its rockery. The 

 rockery was built last year, under Dr. Cockayne's supervision, 

 for the cultivation of alpine plants. It is situated on the south 

 side of the laboratory, and is thereby protected to a considerable 

 extent from the sun. The plants of the Southern Islands have 

 been placed on the shadiest portion of the rockery, so that they 

 will get very little sun indeed. This, as will be seen from the 

 description of the climate prevalent on the islands, is a necessary 

 factor to insure their satisfactory growth, for we find that the 

 sun is seldom seen there. Most of the plants have taken very 

 kindly to their new surroundings, and are flourishing well ; 

 some few have been unable to maintain an existence in the 

 absence of certain peculiar characteristic constituents of their 

 habitat, and have perished. 



In all, twenty-nine species of flowering-plants were examined, 

 a list of which is given later on. This was all I had time to 

 examine, and includes most of the species on the rockery. The 

 more important and striking of the plants I have endeavoured 

 to describe more fully. 



In a study of this nature there are two factors which must 

 be considered as most important in determining the character 

 of the plant : these are (1) the climate, and (2) the soil. 



* " A Botanical Excursion during Midwinter to the Southern Islands of 

 New Zealand." * 



