Spi'Ur.HT, CocKAYNK, L.MXO.- — Moir/if Jrrou'.^mi/Ji Disfrirf. 357 



Trisetum ftubspicatum. (small tufted pubescent grass), Cardamine depressa 

 (small rosette herb), Colohanthus acicularis (small cushions of rigid glabrous 

 linear-subulate acicular leaves), Hectorella caespitosa (dense cushions of 

 small imbricated coriaceous leaves and thick root), Pimelea Traversii (small 

 shrub with tortuous branches and short thick glabrous imbricating 

 leaves), Celmisia bellidioides (subshrub forming loose cushion of leaves in 

 rosettes), Baouh'a eximia (very large dense tomentose-leaved cushion 

 plant with woody main stems and stout woody deeply descending root), 

 Helichrysum grandiceps (short-stemmed subshrub with small imbricating 

 silvery tomentose leaves), H. microphylluni and H. Sclago (tomentose cu- 

 pressoid shrubs, more or less of cushion habit). 



Also, the following are common rock-plants, though not absolutely 

 confined to rocks : Luzula pumila (small cushion), Veronica pinguifolia 

 (decumbent low shrub with thick glaucous leaves), T^. telrasticha (dwarf 

 oupressoid shrub), V. epacridea (decumbent shrub with imbricating thick 

 recurved concave leaves). 



The rock-vegetation is scanty. It is most abundant on the shaded 

 parts. The true rock-plants are chasmophytes. Where there are deep 

 chinks and ledges peat forms, and then various plants of the fell-field occur 

 — e.g., Ranunculus Monroi var. dentatus, Anisotome aromatica, Aciphylla 

 3Ionroi, GauUheria rupestris, Dracophyllum rosmarinifolium, Helichrysum 

 bcUidioides, Celmisia spectahilis, and sheets of Hymenophyllum multifidum 

 {hardly a fell-field plant on a dry mountain). 



So far as the true rock-plants are concerned, they are a category by them- 

 selves, and have no relation to fell-field vegetation, but the remainder can 

 play their part in populating stone-fields. 



* Vegetable-sheep Suhassociation. 



Where the rock is almost weathered away, and stands raised here and 

 there as a small island in the stony desert, it is frequently occupied by the 

 great cushions of Raoulia eximia 1 m. or more in diameter. This most 

 curious shrub has exactly the same growth-form as its herbaceous relatives 

 of the river-beds. There is a central main stem and a few primary woody 

 branches radiating therefrom which branch repeatedly, the secondary 

 branches and those which follow having a tendency to grow upwards, and 

 this is assisted by the frequent branching and consequently increasing 

 density preventing their otherwise horizontal extension. The closeness of 

 growth, through cutting off the light, causes the death of all the interior 

 leaves and many of the stems, so that only the stouter remain, the inter- 

 spaces becoming filled closely with a sticky raw humus into which the ulti- 

 mate branches send abundant roots. The only living leaves are those 

 pressed closely to the shoot-axis for a few centimetres near the apices of the 

 ultimate branches ; they are narrow-obovate, 3 cm. or so long, and densely 

 covered near their apices with white hairs which stand almost erect. The 

 shrub as a whole forms a great hard cushion, the ultimate shoots being 

 pressed together as closely as possible. The interior peat even in the driest 

 weather is soaking with water, and it is probable that the plant gets its 

 chief food and water supply from this source, the main root, sent far into 

 the rock, serving principally as an anchor. 



Certain of the fell-field plants may grow upon the cushions, thanks to 

 the wet raw humus contained therein. 



