443 



were Pittosporum rigidum, a plant more distinguished as a 

 botanical curiosity than anything else, Dacrydium Bid will it\ and 

 others ; also Hymenanthera dentata, Enargea marginata, Wahlen- 

 bergia saxicola, and Pimelia prostrata. 



The next day we pushed on about five miles only, and pitched 

 our camp. The Cobb Valley is most interesting because, in the 

 first place, it is practically unknown except to surveyors, and, 

 with the exception of Mr. F. G. Gibb3, no botanist had been in 

 it, It is a broad, glacial valley with a sluggish river flowing 

 through it, instead of the violently gorged valleys and rapid rivers 

 which are the prevalent characteristic of the country. Here was 

 a beautiful U-shaped valley half-a-mile broad, grassed and fertile, 

 but boggy in places ; the mouth is dammed by a hard vein of 

 quartzite, which is the cause of the original shape being main- 

 tained.* There are fine examples of ' roche moutonne ' and other 

 glacial evidences. Our camp was pitched about six miles from the 

 head of this valley, which is dominated by Mount Cobb. The sur- 

 face of the valley was in places carpeted with a fine species of 

 Bulbinella, which seems quite distinct from B. Hookeri, as it is 

 in every way a finer thing, but not so handsome as B. Rossi i of 

 the Auckland and Campbell Islands. In other places were masses 

 of a white-flowered Gentian, which as yet is classed under 

 Gentiana patula, though it differs from that species in many 

 respects. The bush patches in the valley and their plant asso- 

 ciations were most interesting, among them being Aristoteha 

 fruticosa, Gay a Lyallii, Coprosma cuneata, C. foetuhssnna, 

 Pittosporum rigidum, and generally tussocks of Dantnonta 

 Raoulii scattered about. I found Veronica sal i cor ni aides grow- 

 ing in this valley 7 ft. high. I got into a bush which was 

 well over my head, but Cheeseman in his book says it attains 

 a height of 3 ft. only. The side slopes of the valley are covered 

 in beech forest, with much of the usual superb undergrowth 

 missing. Fagus Menziesii here seemed predominant, and I was 

 able to obtain some fine photographs of individual specimens. 

 There also grows in this valley Pittosporum pat ul urn, a very 

 remarkable and distinct species, of which I have several plants. 

 It occurs very rarely elsewhere in New Zealand, and practically 

 only extends for four miles along the Cobb at the edge of the 

 forest ; from the juvenile form one would never guess its parental 

 origin. 



From our camp we made expeditions up the " walls " of the 

 valley to the heights above, and always something interesting 

 cropped up. For the first 1500 ft. we passed through beech iorest, 

 then came Danthonia Raoulii meadows and dwarfing bush witti 

 open glades, and in these Celmisia Dallti, C. rncana, and O.iffl- 

 versii were magnificent beyond description. The latter is distin- 

 guished by its shining, bright-green leaf, with purple mid-rib on 

 the upper surface, while the under surface is covered with a sott 

 hrown tomentum, the leaves being from 6 to 16 inches long and 

 H to 2* inches broad. We caught them in their full glory, alas 

 rather too early for seed ; but still I have a good assortment one 



and 



fountains we found 



c tfoha, C. rupestris 



0, COVinr.fin Vmf nrvf a 



ifol 



