Cockayne. — On Subalpine Scrub of Mount Fyffe. 361 



Art. XLVI. — Notes on the Subalpine Scrub of Mount Fyffe 



(Seaward Kaikouras). 



By L. Cockayne, Ph.D., Cor.F.B.S.Ed. 



[Bead before the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, V2th December, 1905.] 



1. Introduction. 



The Seaward Kaikouras, or Looker-on Mountains, are a lofty 

 range running at first almost parallel to the coast of eastern 

 Marlborough, but finally striking further inland. They com- 

 mence near the mouth of the Eiver Clarence and end at the 

 source of the Conway, whence under other names the chain 

 is continued until it joins the Southern Alps. The highest 

 peaks are Mount Whakari, 2,591 m., and Mount Kaitarau, 

 2,652 m., but the range as a whole maintains a high altitude. 

 It consists for the most part of dark-coloured shales and of 

 sandstones. The former are very crumbly, and give rise to 

 vast shingle-slips of sombre and forbidding aspect. Mount 

 Fvffe, 1,624 m. in height, is one of the lower peaks, and perhaps 

 the most easy of access. It abuts directly upon the Kaikoura 

 Plain, of which it forms the north-western boundary. The 

 torrential rivers, Kowhai and Hapuka, separate Mount Fyffe 

 from the main range, to which it is joined merely by a narrow 

 saddle. 



Regarding the flora of the Seaward Kaikouras little has 

 been published. From their great height, and position with 

 regard to the eastern seaboard of the South Island and to the 

 Inland Kaikouras, from which they are altogether separated 

 by the Clarence Valley, it might be expected that they would 

 possess some plants of special interest. And this was known 

 to be the case even so early as the publication of the " Flora 

 Novae-Zelandiae," for in that work the wonderful shrub Heli- 

 chrysum (Ozothamnus) coralloides is mentioned. Kirk, in the 

 " Students' Flora," also cites some interesting plants which 

 he had himself discovered — namely, the Ranunculus, Olearia, 

 and Cassinia — which are treated of at some length below. In 

 February, 1902, I collected on Mount Fyffe a rather remarkable 

 Celmisia, which may be an undescribed species, but which 

 in the " Students' Flora " is referred to Cel. sinclairii as " a form 

 with serrated very coriaceous oblong bracts " (p. 285). On 

 the same occasion I also collected an Epilobium, which is re- 

 ferred to below. In 1869 Buchanan published a short paper 



