RICCARTON BUSH. 269 



ihe much older metamorphic region approaches the " meso- 

 phytic cHmax " condition described by Dr. H. C. Cowles * and 

 subsequent writers. While the xerophytic extreme (for East- 

 ern North America) is pretty well exemplified on the summit 

 of Bald Knob, the ravines still lack considerable of reaching 

 the mesophytic climax condition, as is shown by the consider- 

 able number of evergreens (about one-third of the list), which 

 can hardly be considered typical of the climax forest. All this 

 perhaps indicates that Bald Knob has been submerged or other- 

 wise cleared of vegetation at a considerably later period than 

 most of the Piedmont region, which possesses one of the most 

 ancient floras in existence. f 



Similar examples of succession can be found on many other 

 hills in various parts of Georgia and Alabama, both in the moun- 

 tains and in the coastal plain, $ as well as at intermediate points, 

 though I have come across no other which exhibits such a xero- 

 phytic extreme as Bald Knob. This tends to support Dr. Cow- 

 les's contention that the character of the vegetation of any lo- 

 cality is to a considerable extent independent of the geological 

 formations ; a hypothesis which however is still subject to many 

 limitations, which it is not necessary to discuss here. 



RICCARTON BUSH. 



Riccarton Bush is especially noteworthy as being the sole re- 

 maining portion of that vast forest which, at one time, must have 

 occupied much of the country near the coast of Canterbury, New 

 Zealand. Notwithstanding its small size, the bush is still in a 

 remarkably good state of preservation, and shows admirably many 

 of the peculiar characteristics of a New Zealand forest. The 

 dominant tree is the kahikatea ; but while this gives the stamp to 



* Bot. Gaz. 31 : 78-82. 178-180. 1901. 



t See Torreya 5 : 207-210. 1905. The lists of plants observed on Bald 

 Knob are too incomplete and not representative enough (owing to the 

 season at which they were made) to be of much use for calculating the 

 percentages of monocotyledons, as was done in the paper cited. 



X For a description of one such place see Torreya 5 : 56. 1905. 



