Chilton. — Canterbury College Mountain Biological Station. 333 



two or three patches of beech forest, a rocky knoll, hill slopes, a creek and 

 swamp, and also a portion of a large shingle-fan now well covered with 

 vegetation. On our recommendation the governing body of the College, 

 with great liberality, arranged for the reservation of an area of approxi- 

 mately 200 acres to include these features, and also set apart a sum of £200 

 for the erection of the necessary building. In due time plans and speci- 

 fications were drawn up, and the building was erected under the super- 

 intendence of the officers of the Public Works Department, who were then 

 engaged in forming the railwav between the Cass Station and the foot of 

 Arthur's Pass. The building was completed towards the end of 1912, and 

 has since been fitted up with the necessary furniture and equipment, and 

 at the beginning of 1914 was first definitely used for the purpose for which 

 it was erected. During this year I visited it and spent some time at 

 it on several occasions, sometimes with students, and sometimes without, 

 and it is now completely ready for use in connection with the work of the 

 biological laboratory. 



The boundaries of the botanical reserve at the station have not yet been 

 actuallv defined and surveyed, but this will be done later, and a botanical 

 map of the district prepared. In the meantime the following notes will 

 perhaps be sufficient to give an idea of the station and of its suitability 

 for the work for which it is intended. 



The reserve is situated quite close to the Cass Railway-station, the 

 building being only about 200 yards from the station. The height above 

 sea-level is 1,850 ft. The area included in the reserve comprises a portion 

 of a swamp with a fresh-water stream, a rocky knoll with hilly slopes, two 

 or three small patches of beech forest in one of the valleys, and several 

 fine native shrubberies in some of the gullies. There is also included the 

 greater part of a large shingle-fan about a mile and a half across and a mile 

 wide, formed by the detritus from a neighbouring mountain known locally 

 as the "Sugarloaf"; and access is provided to Lake Sarah, one of the 

 numerous mountain lakes in the district, Lake Sarah itself being only a 

 mile and a half from the station. 



The shingle-fan is an old- one, and is now well covered with vegetation 

 of the usual tussock-meadow formation, containing among the tussocks a 

 very large variety of cushion plants, such as Scleranthus biflorus, various 

 species of Raoulia, cushion forms of Carmichaelia, Coprosma, &c. The 

 cushion plants are very abundant both on the shingle-fan and in the 

 neighbouring river-beds ; two of the most striking of them are perhaps 

 two species of Coprosma, C. repens and C. Petriei, both forming extensive 

 mats on the surface, which in autumn are thickly studded with the large 

 translucent berries, port- wine-coloured in the first, pale blue in the second. 

 Observations and experiments on these cushion plants open up a fascinating 

 line of study for the ecologist. 



Quite near to the building are many large plants of the " wild-irishman ' : 

 (Discaria toumatou), which has already become well known through Dr. 

 Cockayne's classic experiment, proving that the spines on it are not de- 

 veloped if the plant is grown in a moist, damp, still atmosphere. The 

 peculiar umbelliferous plant Aciphylla squarrosa is also abundant, and there 

 is a large variety of shrubs belonging to the genera Aristotelia, Corokia. 

 Coprosma, Hymenanthera, &c. In the autumn the berries on these attract 

 the visits of numerous native and introduced birds. 



The flora of Lake Sarah and of its shores is well worthy of being fully 

 investigated. In the lake is an abundance of Isoetes, Pilularia, Potamogelov, 

 and a Nitella which grows in the deeper waters of the lake at some little 



