TowNSON. — On Vegetation of Westport District. 401 



parts of this range Podocarpus nivalis is found, and is most 

 difficult to make one's way through ; sometimes, when too thick 

 to crawl under, the only course is to climb over the top of it. 

 The only curiosities which I obtained on Mount Faraday were 

 Hydrocotyle novce-zealandice var. montana, Drapetes dieffenbackii 

 var. mtdtiflora, a form of Ligusticum resembling L. haastii but 

 smaller and more slender and bearing pink flowers, and a 

 curiously matted form of Polypodium serpens which grows 

 amongst the rocks around the peak. 



From the Four- mile we returned to Brighton, where we were 

 staying, and on our way home I gathered Dickelachne sciurea 

 where the road crosses the saddle. At the mouth of Fox's River, 

 at Brighton, amongst the rocks on the sea-face, grows a new 

 species of Veronica, named V. divergens by Mr. Cheeseman, whose 

 remarks regarding it I cannot do better than quote : " Although 

 unwilling to create new species in a genus like Veronica, I feel 

 compelled to assign specific rank to this, which appears to be 

 well characterized by the small oblong or elliptic-oblong flat 

 spreading leaves, dense racemes, very short and broad corolla- 

 tube, and broadly oblong subacute capsule. In some respects 

 it approaches V. macroura var. dubia, but its nearest ally is 

 probably V. salicifolia var. kirkii." Not far from the mouth 

 of the river is an island called Seal Island, which can only be 

 approached at low water on spring tides, and there I found 

 Juncus ccBspiticius and Agnopyrum scahrum growing, and on 

 many of the rocks in the vicinity Tillcea sieberiana may be found. 

 Following Fox's River through one of the most picturesque 

 gorges which I have ever seen, we approached the foothills of 

 the main range, the peaks of Mount Faraday, the Razorback, 

 and Mount Bovis serrating the sky-line. On a subsequent visit 

 I made one of the first ascents of the Razorback, but made no 

 fresh botanical discoveries. On the banks of the river Poa anceps 

 hangs in long tresses from the cliff-face side by side with Schcenus 

 pauciflprus ; on the shingly banks here and there Senecio hectori 

 was in full flower. Olearia ilicifolia var. molle was one mass of 

 white bloom, and Elytranthe colensoi showed in scarlet masses 

 pendent from the limbs of Fagus fusca. Corysanthes micrantha 

 was plentiful in shaded situations, and where a stream strongly 

 impregnated with lime flowed across the roadway Veronica 

 macrocarpa var. crassifolia was again met with, and on the 

 more open banks Urtica ferox and Arctium lappa were not 

 uncommon. 



Mount Bovis was the last mountain in the Paparoa Chain 

 which I was able to visit, and to reach it we travelled overnight 

 to Bullock Creek, from which point it is inost easily approached. 

 To reach our destination we were obliged to ford Fox's River 



