TowNSON. — On Vegetation of Westport District. 399 



gunnii starring over some of the bare patches of brown peat. 

 Drosera binata is ubiquitous, and AccBna sanguisorbce is plenti- 

 ful on the drier parts of the surface. The most abundant 

 ferns are Pteris aquilina, P. incisa, P. scaherula, and Gleichenia 

 dicarpa ; whilst on the margins of the forest Lomaria frazeri 

 flourishes. 



On the main road to Charleston, where it crosses the pakihis, 

 patches of Gnaphalium collinum and Hdichryswn filicaide are 

 seen on the roadside, and growing amongst them I found 

 a GnapJialium new to Mr. • Cheeseman, and which he thinks 

 must be introduced. In the same locality, growing on the 

 banks at the side of the road, and also on dry elevations amongst 

 the pakihis, I collected Prasophyllmn rufum, in reference to 

 which Mr. Cheeseman remarks, " I suspect that the New Zealand 

 plant will prove to be a different species to the Australian, and 

 it is probable that the North Island plant described in the 

 Handbook under the name of P. nudum is distinct from Mc- 

 Mahon's and Townson's South Island specimens. Mr. Town- 

 son's have a broad obtuse lip, but in Fitzgerald's ' Australian 

 Orchids ' (vol. ii, part iv) the lip of P. rufum is represented 

 as lanceolate and acute." 



In many places these marshy plains extend from the top 

 of the high-level terraces to the foot of the mountain-spurs, 

 and are favourite sites for gold-miners' dams. 



The nearest peak of the Paparoa Mountains to Westport is 

 Mount Buckland, which overlooks the Buller Gorge. Round 

 about Caroline Terrace, which flanks this mountain, and on the 

 foothills, I met with a new species of Dracophyllum, named 

 D. townsoni, Cheesem., the peculiarity of which is its bearing 

 curved and drooping panicles of foetid-smelling flowers, situated 

 beneath the leaves. It grows to a height of from 10 ft. to 20 ft., 

 and the branches are ringed with the scars of the fallen leaves, 

 and so far as I know it grows only in that locality. On that 

 terrace I found Elytranthe flavida parasitic upon Fagus solandri ; 

 also, by the dam, a patch of Pelargonium australe ; and I never 

 found either plant again in any other locality. -The mountain 

 forest is chiefly Fagus, and where it runs out, Dracophyllum 

 urvilleanum var. montanum, Dacrydium hiforme, Archeria tra- 

 versii, and Olearia colensoi replace it. On reaching the open 

 country Acipkylla hookeri appears ; and on a swampy tableland 

 Ranunculus gracilipes is in abundance amongst the grass ; 

 and where it is more stony, Celmisia dallii, C. sessiliflora, and 

 C. lateralis are fairly common. In the mossy bogs Caltha novce- 

 zealandice and Plantago hroivnii are plentiful, whilst Ourisia 

 glandulosa and Geum uniforum decorate the rock-ledges. Near 

 the peak Veronica gilliesiana and Ourisia sessiliflora grow in 



