f4 Sutton, Notes on the Sandnngliani Flora. [^"^M.iy"'^' 



submerged leaves — ' helophytes,' or marsh plants — are a 

 much larger company. Many of these possess horizontal 

 rhizomes, as in the little blue-flowered Isotoma fluviatilis ; the 

 " Brooklime," Gratiola Peruviana ; the " Swampweed," Selliera 

 radicans ; the "Small Loose Strife" Lythnim hyssopifolia ; 

 the common yellow-flowered " Water Buttons," Cotiila cor ono pi- 

 folia ; Maziis pumilio ; the " Creeping Monkey-flower," 

 Mimultis repens (rare) ; the " White Purslane," Claytonia 

 australasica ; and the " Joyweed," AUernanthera triandra. 



The " Common Reed," Arimdo phragmites, and the " Slender 

 Knotweed," Polygonum minus, grow in water. The " River 

 Buttercgap," Ranunculus rivularis ; the " Willow Herb," Epi- 

 lobium glabellum; the tall, leafless "Golden Spray," Viminaria 

 denudata ; several of the rushes, Junceae ; and even the com- 

 posites, the " Swamp Daisy," Br achy come cardiocarpa, and 

 " Billy Buttons," Craspedia Richea, are often seen in flooded 

 ground. The " Dwarf Arrow-grass," Triglochin centrocarpa, 

 and the centrolepids, C. aristata and C. strigosa, the Sundews 

 (Droseras), the " Tender Bubble-plant," Polypompholyx tenella, 

 and other minute plants, as the Leeuwenhoekias, " Drummond's 

 Club Moss," Phylloglossum Drummondi, the " Curious Mitre- 

 wort," Mitrasacme paradoxa, and the " Tiny Trigger-plant," 

 Candollca perpusilla, are oftenest seen in moist ground. It is 

 difficult, or impossible, to exactly define the formations or 

 associations. There is almost always overlapping between 

 them. Always there are members capable of growing under 

 different conditions, and hence halophytes mix with non- 

 halophytes, the ' leptospermetum ' merges into the scrub-land, and 

 the water plants, by way of the marsh plants, into those of the 

 dry land. 



In attempting to deal with the subject of this paper in an 

 oecological way, it is felt that, in translating the vegetation into 

 modern terms, only a very moderate success could have been 

 expected. But the effort was certainly worth making. So 

 far, we have almost entirely contented ourselves with the mere 

 enumeration of species noticed, and it would seem to be better 

 if, in future Club excursions, a particular attention were de- 

 voted to them in regard to their associations. 



A remark by Clements, an American writer quoted by 

 Warming in his " CEcology of Plants," shows that we have not 

 been alone in our neglect of this matter. He says " that vague- 

 ness of grouping is due to the fact that oecology is only in its 

 infancy, and that very few detailed investigations of plant 

 communities have been conducted, the published descriptions 

 of vegetation being nearly always one-sided and floristic, as 

 well as very incomplete and unsatisfactory from an oecological 

 standpoint." 



