Ecnlogicrd Balaiu/.] 



SUBANTARCTIC ISLANDS OF NEW ZEALAND. 



223 



(x.) Plcuniphvllum Meadow (see figs. 3, 6, 7, 1-i, l;i. and 16). 



This formation, with its wonderful collection of stately herbs with immense 

 leaves, and in some cases masses of showy flowers, would be remarkable enough 

 anywhere in the world, but how much more so at no great distance from the limit 

 of flowering-plants in the Southern Hemisphere. The whole of its members, as 

 seen by what has gone before, occur in other formations. Here, however, they 

 have gathered together into one whole, and much of the magnificent endemic flora 

 can be seen in all its glory at a glance. The formation is by no means common, 

 and is probablv limited to certain spots near sea-level in ( arnley Harbour, to some 



on right, StilhiK-drpa pol 



'.w. \ll« ..!■■ k PiK. !• .'1- I'lruivphijlbnii :Mi.m.o» 



and AcipliiiUa hitif„lta on left, .in.l colony of I'lnimpliylUn, 



of the slopes of Disappointment Island (but there modified), and to various places 

 in Campbell Island. 



" Fairchild's Garden." the most striking example of the formation, is on a 

 sloping piece of groimd on Adams Island, near the Western Channel. The meadow 

 as a whole presents a rather irregular surface of varied greens. The pinnate and 

 lobed leaves of AciphyUn latifolia, darker than those of most of its associates. 

 dominate near the sea. The great corrugated, pale-green, broad-ovate leaves of 

 PlenrofhyUum sfeciosum, arranged in loose rosettes, are everywhere (fig. 14), and in 

 December the massive flower-stalks, bearing the numerous aster-lik(^ purple flower- 



