132 Transactio7is. 



at the back. The soil is completely overturned once a year by black- 

 burro wers {Puffinus chlororhynchus), and this has the efiect of almost killing 

 the vegetation. The plants die down so much that there is hardly a gxeen 

 leaf left, and they have the appearance of being dead. WTien the birds de- 

 part, a fresh rank gTowth of foliage results from the large amount of guano 

 left in the soil. In August a dense growth of young shoots covers the stems 

 of Myoporum IcBtum and Mclicope ternata ; the tops of the trees, however, 

 are quite dead, and never recover. The imdergrowth is a rank mass of 

 Macropiper excelsum major about 1 m. high, and which, judging by the 

 number of dead stems present, appears to have been killed right down to 

 the roots. With it occur a few other plants — Mariscus ustulatus, Pteris 

 comans, Solanum nigrum, Carex Forsteri insularis, Sicyos australis, Hypo- 

 lepis tenuifolia, Ageratum conyzoides. 



Growing in highly manured gTound vacated by the shearwater above 

 mentioned, Sicyos australis frequently produces abnormal male flowers, 

 in which the petals turn green, and assume more or less the shape and 

 character of young foUage-leaves. 



The vegetation on Meyer Island takes the form of open ngaio (Myo- 

 porum) scrub up to about 8 m. high, and including some other trees not 

 characteristic of this formation — Metrosideros villosa, Corynocarpus Icevigata, 

 Pisonia Brunoniana, Rapanea kcrmadecensis. 



Pisonia Bnmoniana branches in an extremely irregular, not to say 

 fantastic, manner. The trunk is stout, gnarled, and divided half a metre 

 or so above the gTound. The stems spread out in all directions, and, branch- 

 ing but few times, bear a rosette of large leaves at the extremity of each 

 twig. Often large branches are dead. The Pisonia appears to have a hard 

 struggle to live on this exposed arid islet. On every possible spot a white- 

 cap noddy {Micranou's leucocapillus) has placed its nest, built of Pisonia 

 and other leaves. Wliether or not the bird plucks leaves from the trees 

 for its nest I cannot say. 



There are a few small plants of Corynocarpus Icevigata growing in the 

 most sheltered places on Meyer Island. They have erect stems, small, dark, 

 yellowish-gTeen upper leaves and larger lower ones, and, never rising higher 

 than the surrounding ngaio scrub, their uppermost twigs are dead. 



Asplenium Shuttleworthianum on Meyer Island is a low densely tufted 

 fern. Rhizome stout, brownish-black, forming a mass 15-20 cm. in dia- 

 meter. Fronds crowded, much divided, the pinnae usually overlapping, 

 with short segments, yellowish-green, the tips usually dead. 



The soil on Meyer Island is the loose, shifting, yellowish, weathered 

 surface of the tuffs of which the island is composed. It is continually being 

 overturned by burrowing species of shearwater. During the summer 

 months the burrows are occupied by Puffinus chlororhynchus, in company 

 with a small petrol [CEstrelata nigripennis), while for the remainder of the 

 year their place is taken by P. assimiUs. It is only in crevices of rocks and 

 other places where the birds are unable to burrow that any small plants 

 occur. Here are found Sicyos australis, Canavalia obtusifolia, Parictaria 

 debilis, Mariscus ustulatus, Solanum, nigrum (pubescent form), Asplenium 

 Shuttleworthianum, and Siegesheckia orientalis. 



The scrub, owing to the steep rocky nature of the surface, is rather open. 

 The Myoporum itself appears to be as much dead as alive. Looking at it 

 from above, one sees a forest of straggly dead brushwood, among which 

 living branches are struggUng for existence. The constant winds laden 



