6 Transactions. 



faces there are species to be obtained not collected by me. It is very 

 unlikely, however, that there will be any among them not recorded from 

 Norfolk Island itself, (c.) It was a season of drought — ferns, grasses, and 

 other plants were dried up. For this reason, some species may have been 

 overlooked, (d.) Some plants previously recorded are probably now extinct. 

 (e.) Some seasonal plants were perhaps not observed. I cannot think, 

 however, that much remains to be added to the list. On the other hand, 

 my list doubtless still contains some introduced species : the difficulty lies 

 in knowing which to eliminate. 



Plant Associations. 



It will be clear from what has already been said that it is now impossible 

 to give anything like an adequate account of the primeval condition of 

 the vegetation, or of its original plant associations. I have hitherto been 

 unable to get statistics of the rainfall and weather-conditions, though I 

 believe they have been to some extent recorded. The rainfall is, I think, 

 about 45 in. per year, but it is often very unevenly distributed. Summer 

 and autumn droughts are not infrequent. When discovered by Captain 

 Cook the island was in most places covered with an almost impenetrable 

 forest- — undoubtedly a mesophytic rain forest. The remnants of this are 

 still to be found, but in a very altered condition. Here and there the forest 

 may have consisted chiefly of a comparatively open formation of Araucaria 

 excelsa, as still at Bamboras, where nothing else is now to be found. Here 

 on the forest floor the roots from an interlacing network, spreading on or 

 near the surface, and the ground is otherwise bare. Undoubtedly, how- 

 ever, the chief portion of the forest contained, as in New Zealand, a con- 

 siderable number of species of trees, interlaced by huge lianes e.g., Cap- 

 paris, Jasminum, Tylophora, &c. — which practically stopped all progress 

 on foot. There is little sign of xerophyly in the vegetation, though such 

 plants as Wickstroemia australis, Exocarpus phyllanthoides, Cordyline Baueri, 

 and Phormivm tenax may be regarded as exceptions to this rule ; and, on 

 the other hand, the large tender membranous leaves of the hygrophytic 

 forest are also generally absent, though, again, in Piper excelsum var. 

 psittacorum, Pisonia Brunoniana, and one or two other species the leaves 

 approach this type. Taken as a whole, however, the forest would pro- 

 bably, in its adaptations to moisture, be not at all unlike the mesophytic 

 rain forests of Auckland Province. As there is none of the untouched 

 primitive forest on the island, this is, of course, to some extent only a 

 surmise. 



Probably the only portion of the vegetation that remains somewhat in 

 its original condition is that of the coastal rocks and cliffs. The coastal 

 species show little endemism, and are mostly widely distributed plants, 

 whose seeds are perhaps carried by ocean birds and winds, though some 

 species are probably of recent and artificial introduction. Wedelia biflora 

 often forms a matted trailing mass on the sea-banks, to the exclusion of 

 other vegetation. Ipomoea palmata and Samolus repens var. stricla also 

 form patches on the seashore. Lobelia anceps and Mesembryanthemum 

 aequilaterale hang from the coastal cliffs. Tetragonia expansa, T. trigyna, 

 Asplenium difforme, and Canavallia obtusi/olia also occur, though less 

 abundantly. Oxalis corniculata var. reptans is common on the tops of 

 the cliffs. More rarely, Capparis, dwarfed and scrambling, is found on or 

 near the shore. Maiden got Ipomoea biloba and Calystegia Soldanella. Not 

 far inland Scirpus nodosns and Mariscus haematodes appear. In more or 

 less inaccessible places Coprosma Baueri is occasionally found. Probably 



