40 NEW ZEALAND PLANTS. 
erect growth, as may be seen in many coastal forests (fig. 21). It 
occurs on the coast from the Three Kings Islands to Poverty Bay 
and Taranaki, and inland on the shores of Lakes Taupo, Waikare- 
moana, Rotorua, Roto-iti, and other lakes of the Volcanic Plateau. 
Associations in which the yellow - flowered, drooping - leaved 
mountain-flax (Phormiuwm Colensoi) is the leading plant occur at 
various points. on coastal rocks. On the soft papa cliffs of Hawke’s 
Bay the flax is accompanied by the handsome papa-koromiko 
(Veronica macroura). Another plant peculiar to that association is 
the East Cape groundsel (Senecio Banksiz). On the northern shore 
of Cook Strait, and on rocks in Pelorus and Queen Charlotte Sounds, 
an allied association occurs, but the veronica is the Cook Strait 
koromiko (V. salicifolia var. Atkinsonii). In Stewart Island and the 
Otago fiords Phormium Colensoi clothes the rock, but hardly where 
facing the actual ocean. In the last-named localities, as also in 
Southland, peat is readily formed in the semi-subantarctic climate. 
On such a soil there is a coastal fern-association of the shore- 
spleenwort (Asplenium obtusatum), the thick-leaved hard-fern (Blech- 
num durum), and its smaller-leaved relative, the shore hard-fern 
(B. Banksit). Here will be also the fine white shore forget-me-not 
(Myosotis albida), a plant suitable for rock-gardens. Old morainic 
matter facing the sea in Westland—eg., the Okarito Blufi—has its 
special rock association, distinguished especially by great green sheets, 
where water drips, of the handsome everlastings—the three-nerved 
cudweed (Gnaphalium trinerve) and the rock-cudweed (G. Lyallia), 
the latter to be distinguished from the former by its larger leaves. 
There is also abundance of the clinging climbing-rata (Metrosideros 
scandens). Another cudweed (Gnaphalium keriense) occurs on volcanic 
coastal rocks of Taranaki. It is accompanied by an unnamed veronica 
allied to V. Cookiana, a thick-leaved prostrate form of the shore- 
lobelia (Lobelia anceps), an unnamed grass, and the fine thick-leaved 
rosettes of a variety of the New Zealand plantain (Plantago Raoulii). 
One of the most remarkable plant-associations of New Zealand 
is that combination of shrubs, &c., growing on Rangitoto Island, 
in the Hauraki Gulf. The soil is entirely composed of huge blocks 
of scoria. There is apparently no water, but, of course, a sufficiency 
there must be. All the same, there is not enough, as a rule, for 
the shrubs and other plants to assume their usual development. 
Notwithstanding the barren dwelling-place, 180 species at least of 
