364 Transactions. 



tt Composition. 



Tall trees : Podocarpus Hallii, Lihoccdrus Bidwillii. 



Moderate-sized and small trees : Phyllccladus al'pinus, Gaya LyalUi,^ 

 Griselinia littoralis, Suttonia divaricata, Veronica salicijolia, Coprosma linarii- 

 jolia, Olearia ilicifolia, Senecio elaeagnifolius. 



Shrubs : Polystichum vestitum, Phyllocladus al'pinus, Gaya Lyallii, Aris- 

 totelia fruticosa, Suttonia divaricata, Coprosma ciliata, C parvif^^ora, C. cune- 

 ata, Veronica salicifolia. 



Lianes : Ruhus scJimidelioides var. coloratus. 



Epiphytes : Hymenophyllum sanguinolentum, Asplenium. flaccidum, Lyco- 

 podiuni Billardieri, Senecio elaeagnifdius. 



Parasite : Tupeia antarctica, on Gaya Lyallii. 



ttt Physiognomy. 



The forest is made up of three tiers — viz., the tall trees, their heads of 

 foliage distant ; the smaller trees, their heads closer, but the forest-roof 

 as a whole open ; the closely growing short-trunked layer of Polystichum 

 vestitum.. In addition to the above, especially where there is a maximum 

 of light, there is a discontiniious tier of more or less straggling divaricating 

 shrubs. On the ground where there is space there is abundance of seedlings 

 of Gaya Lyallii and a feAv floor-plants — e.g., Asplenium Richardi, Epilohium 

 linnaeoides, Hydrocotyle 7iovae-zelandiae, and Uncinia uncinata. 



The leading physiognomic feature is the horizontal and semi-horizontal 

 thick and most irregular trunks of the small trees, especially the composites 

 (see Plate VII, fig. 2), with their long depending strijjs of papery bark, their 

 naked branches, which finally branching several times, candelabra-like, form 

 a spreading open greyish-coloured head. 



The trunks are frequently much moss-covered, but, although there may 

 be thick masses, these can hardly be called cushions, as compared with 

 those of Westland, Stewart Island, &c. 



f ttt Ecology. 



The soil consists, so far as it was examined, of an upper layer of loose 

 humus some 12 cm. deep and full of roots, succeeded by stones (old shingle- 

 slip), into which a good deal of the finer humus has penetrated. This upper 

 layer holds and stores Avater, and the network of roots shows how important 

 a part its power to do so plays in the economy of the forest, and how de- 

 pendent this is on the frequent downpour — that it is, in fact, a true rain 

 forest. 



The general more or less horizontal habit of the composite trees and 

 Griselinia littoralis is very striking, and doubtless to be correlated with the 

 mechanical action of the wind, though certainly there must be an hereditary 

 tendency to respond to the wind-stimulus, as Cockayne has already sug- 

 gested from observations on seedlings (1904, p. 254). How greatly the 

 ecology of a formation depends upon the formation itself — that is to say, 

 how a formation when established brings a change in its own environment 

 — is here illustrated by the remarkably luxuriant groAAi:h of so many of 

 the components. Thus the usually densely divaricating shrub Suttonia 

 divaricata becomes an erect tree at least 6 m. tall and 57 cm. in diameter, 

 branching above into a small head of " weeping " slender twigs. Coprosma 

 linariifolia measured in one instance 66 cm.§ in diameter at the base of its 



J If a plant is mentioned under two heads it means that it has two growth-forms. 

 § liirk (1889, p. 187) gives 9 in. (22-9 cm.) as an extreme size. 



