Eculogicdl Botani/.] 



SUBANTARCTIC ISLANDS OF NEW ZEALAND. 



221 



Quite fonfined to this formation is Marsippospermum (jmcile, the erect, terete, 

 slender leaves crowded together, reddish-brown in colour, or in some places green, 

 and forming sometimes pure masses some square metres in extent, or at other times 

 growing amongst and through the Cclmisia cushions, the gentian, and the Ranunculus. 



The following plants are frequently important members of the formation : 

 Gentiana cerina, Ahwtnnella spathidatn, Ph ///Incline clavigera, Luzula crinita, Coprosma 

 repens, Agrostis vutgeUanica. Veronica Bciillidmi, an occasional stunted Danthonia 

 antarctica. small AcipJi//l/a antipoda. Stilhocai-pn pnlaiis, Plenrophj/llum upeciosum, 

 and Aciphf/Uii UitijoUa. but the latter three much dwarfed. 



Fi.i. 13.— Uenerai, Vikw of l'Lnirop]i,iUum llouk, 



Sni'iH m' AiTKT.AXn Island. 



There is no other formation in New Zealand that can be exactly compared 

 with this. The stony substratum at once recalls the shingle slips of the Southern 

 Alps ; but in these islands the superabundant moisture, and the peat-making habit of 

 the ^slants conditional thereon, does away altogether with the need for " shingle-slip 

 adaptations," and special wind-resisting power, here attained by lowness of stature, 

 cushion form, and creeping habit, is the chief desideratum. 



(ix.) Poa litorosa Formation. 

 On Disappointment Island, and to a limited extent so far as I observed on Auck- 

 land Island, is a meadow of Poa litorosa, and in some places P. foliosa, similar to that 

 of the Snares, Antipodes, and Campbell Islands in its general physiognomy. The 



