Ecological Botani/.] SUBANTARCTIC ISLANDS OF NEW ZEALAND. 229 



and quite leafy. Tlie different greens of the Stilltocnrjxi. nettle, fern, and grass 

 offer considerable contrast. 



On ground which has been manured by the giant petrel {Ossifraga gigantea) 

 grows the remarkable Senecio antifodus, a plant peculiar to the Antipodes Group, 

 and not related to any New Zealand species. It is an erect, branching, perennial 

 herb with a thick main stem, rather large, irregularly pinnatifid, green, membranous 

 leaves, furnished with a prominent midrib, and tomentose with loose cobwebby 

 hairs on the under-surface. The flowers are yellow, and not showy, and the rayless 

 heads are in terminal corymbs. 



(iii.) Scrub. 

 This occurs in the sheltered gullies, but the patches are cpiite small and narrow. 

 It attains a height of 1"5 m. or thereabouts — i.e., it is at best but little taller than 

 the tussock. It consists of Coprosma ciliata and G. cuneata, the plants having slender 

 thin main stems and flat crowns of very dense leafy twigs. On the ground is a 

 little Epilobium linnaeoides and Lagenophora pumila, and on the stems are a few- 

 mosses and lichens. It is quite probable that there are other species of shrubs on 

 the island, since this formation has only been most hurriedly examined both by Kirk 

 and myself.* 



(iv.) Bog. 



The bog is perhaps the most interesting formation on Antipodes Island, since 

 it shows clearly the selective power of water-saturated ground, tlie choice of plants 

 having, of course, been limited to the small flora of the island. Even in winter these 

 bogs have a physiognomy distinct from the meadow, and in summer this is much 

 intensified. They consist of slight circular depressions in the flat meadow, the soil 

 so wet that water can be wrung out of it, while in places there may be actual shallow 

 pools. 



The great pale-green leaves and tall erect flowering-stem of Pleurophyllum. 

 criniferum and the rather broad, grasslike leaves of Carex ternaria, this latter the 

 dominant plant, clearly mark off bog from meadow. The tussock-grass is almost 

 or quite wanting, while Aciphi/lla antipoda, Stilbocarpa polaris, Coprosma repens, and 

 C. cuneata are much more abundant than on the adjacent formation. The filmy 

 fern Hymenopliijlluni luultifiduDi and Coprosma repens form close patches, but not 

 mixed with one another. Other plants of the formation are Luzida crinita. Gentiana 

 antipoda, and Uncinia riparia var. Hooleri. The frondose liverwort Marchantia 

 cephalosci/pha forms flat green patches on the bare wet peat. 



(v.) Swamp. 

 Swampy ground is distinguished, as on the Aucklands, by the great size of 

 Poa litorosa. Where the soil is wettest there is much Carex appressa, also of the 

 trunked-tussock habit. In the most extensive swamps Polijstichum vestitum is abund- 

 ant, and gives a special character, its leaves showing black at a distance. Such 

 swamps much impede progress, the close-growing fern being difficult to penetrate. 



* Since the above was written, Mr. B. C. Aston, F.C.S., a member of the expedition, has visited 

 Antipodes Island and collected a few jjlants previously unrecorded, for which see the memoirs of 

 Petrie and Cheeseman in this volume. 



