484 ZONES AND REGIONS [Pt. Ill, Sect. II 



utmost efforts that a way can be worked over the gnarled roots of trees and through 

 the creepers which obstruct the passage at every moment.' 



A rich flora associated with great luxuriance of growth occurs in New 

 Zealand, especially in the North Island, and falls off in the southern part of 

 the South Island as beech-trees continually become more abundant (Fig. 250). 

 The following account of some characteristic features is based chiefly upon 

 Diel's researches : — 



In number of individuals, conifers rank highest among the trees. They do not 

 possess acicular leaves, but either closely imbricate scale-leaves, as in Libocedrus 

 Doniana, Endl., Podocarpus dacrydioides, A. Rich., and some species of Dacrydium, 

 or larger broader leaves, as in Agathis australis, Steud.. species of Podocarpus and 

 of Phyllocladus (Fig. 251). The systematic multiplicity of the dicotyledonous woody 

 plants is surprising (no species included in 61 genera and 39 families), yet still more 

 surprising is their similarity in habit. The} 7 nearly all have leathery, ovate, entire 

 leaves, with glazed upper surfaces, which in the taller trees usually possess contri- 

 vances for storing water (aqueous tissue, mucilage-cells, and the like). The dense 

 underwood is rich in tree-ferns. Smaller ferns form the essential part of the terres- 

 trial herbaceous flora, and the intervals between them are occupied by mosses. The 

 bases of the stems are decked with Hymenophyllaceae ; higher up these are replaced 

 by other epiphytic ferns (species of Polypodium, Asplenium) ; on the branches of 

 the trees flourish the large rosettes of endemic species of Astelia (A. Cunninghamii, 

 Hook, f., A. Solandri, Cunn., A. spicata, Col., and others (Fig. 247)), which, like the 

 similar epiphytic bromeliads, store water between their close-set leaves, and prob- 

 ably utilize it in the same manner as do the Bromeliaceae. Other autochthonous 

 epiphytes are developed as shrubs (Pittosporum cornifolium, A. Cunn., and P. Kirkii, 

 Hook, f., Metrosideros robusta, A. Cunn., and M. Colensoi, Hook, f., Griselinia lucida, 

 Forst., Gaultheria epiphytica, Col.) ; Enargea marginata, Gaertn., belonging to the 

 Luzuriageae, reminds one, as does the epiphytic Griselinia, of the rain-forest of 

 South Chili ; some orchids and a Peperomia point to immigration from the tropics, 

 in part ancient, in part recent. Like the epiphytes, the lianes, when compared with 

 those of the tropical rain-forest, are much poorer in forms ; owing however to the 

 great number of individuals, they form an essential component of the forest. They 

 are partly tendril-climbers (species of Clematis), partly twiners (species of Lygo- 

 dium, Rhipogonum, Muhlenbeckia, Parsonsia, Ipomoea, Senecio), partly root- 

 climbers (species of Metrosideros), partly scramblers (Rubus australis). Character- 

 istic of this liane-flora are Myrtaceae that never climb elsewhere. 



iv. THE TEMPERATE RAIN-FOREST IN AUSTRAIIA. 



The ' fern gullies ' of Victoria exhibit quite a peculiar physiognomy. 

 This is a form of forest that owes its luxuriance more to subterranean 

 water than to rain. 



Over wide tracts the forest consists of two sharply defined tiers, a lower one of 

 tree-ferns which attains a height of about 40-50 feet, and an upper one of Eucalypti 

 the average height of which may be 300-400 feet. The Eucalypti belong to several 

 species, in particular E. amygdalina and E. obliqua ; they stand sometimes close 



