Cheeseman. — On the Flora of the Kermadec Islands. 157 



and look healthy and thriving. Evidently the climate and soil 

 are favourable for the cultivation of many tropical and sub- 

 tropical fruits ; and if frequent and regular communication 

 existed, such might be profitably grown for the New Zealand 

 market. I may add that the ordinary cultivated fruits and 

 vegetables of Europe, so far as they have been tried, succeed 

 very fairly indeed. 



The second of the group, Macaulay Island, is about 1|- miles 

 in length, by about a mile in greatest breadth. It is every- 

 where surrounded by high vertical cliffs, ranging from over 700 

 feet at the west end to about 150 feet at the eastern point of the 

 island. Access to the top can only be obtained at one place, 

 where a lava stream has fallen over the cliffs, and formed a 

 rough natural staircase. On reaching the top of the cliffs the 

 surface of the island is seen to be gently undulating, with a 

 gradual slope from the west. There are several shallow gullies, 

 and in one of them small pools of water were seen ; but, as on 

 Sunday Island, there are no permanent streams. It is entirely 

 covered with a beautiful sward of natural grass, apparently 

 composed of a species of Poa and an Agrostis : but in the absence 

 of flowers I cannot be sure of the determinations. There are 

 no trees or woody plants of any kind, with the exception of a 

 few stunted bushes of Carumbium, and two or three dwarf 

 ngaios (Myoporum). A few small herbaceous plants, as 

 Gnaplwdium involucratum, Haloragis alata, Oxalis, Erigeron, etc., 

 were scattered here and there among the grass. Tussocks of 

 toe-toe (Cyperus ustulatus) fringed the edges of most of the 

 gullies ; and a few ferns were found in sheltered nooks along the 

 sides of the dry water-courses. The ice-plant (Mesembryan- 

 themum australe), Scoeyola gracilis, Tetragonia expansa, Lobelia 

 anceps, and Coprosma petiolata, were all plentiful on the cliffs. 

 The flora must be considered as very scanty, only 33 species 

 being observed. 



Curtis Island is rather more than 20 miles to the south-west 

 of Macaulay Island. It is nearly half-a-mile in length, and 

 about 450 feet in height ; but is little more than the rocky rim 

 of a still partly active crater. The crater-wall is broken down 

 on the north-west side, where there is a sheltered little cove, so 

 that landing can be effected within the crater itself, in proximity 

 to numbers of steam jets and boiling mud-pools. Our stay was 

 so short that it was impossible to ascend the cliffs to examine 

 the vegetation on the top of the island, where several green 

 patches had been noticed from the deck of the Stella. The 

 only plants actually identified were Mesembryanthemum australe 

 and Lobelia anceps, which were growing on a mud-flat on the 

 floor of the crater. A grass, and some bushes of what seemed 

 to be Coprosma petiolata, were also observed on the face of the 

 cliffs a short distance from the landing place. In all probability 



