42 NEW ZEALAND PLANTS. 
parasitic fungus, one of the rusts, those protean plants which in 
some instances, totally changing their form and habits, spend a part 
of their existence on one plant and another part upon quite a 
different species. 
Growing in a similar situation to the teteaweka is a form of the 
common mountain tree-daisy (Olearia Colensor), very like the sub- 
antarctic tree-daisy (O. Lyalliz). The interior of such coastal scrub 
presents only a view of naked, irregular trunks and_ branches 
(fig. 23), but it is a remarkable sight nevertheless. 
The shore-koromiko (Veronica elliptica), mentioned above, deserves 
a few words. In the first place, it is one of our South American 
connections, for it grows in southern South America as well as in 
New Zealand. When fairly sheltered it is a fine upright-growimg 
shrub, covered closely on its outer twigs with rather thick palish- 
green smal] leaves. Like all the other veronicas, its flowers have 
only two stamens. The corolla is at first bright purple, but soon 
fades to white. The scent of the flowers is delicious. It is abundant 
in the Lord Auckland and Campbell Islands, the Snares, Stewart 
Island, the west coast of the South Island, and the east coast to 
about as far north as Dunedin; then on that coast it does not 
occur again until on one of the northern islands of Pelorus Sound. 
It appears again, but as a different variety, on the shore of Cook 
Strait at Titahi Bay, near Wellington. Finally, it was discovered 
recently by Mr. P. G. Morgan to the west of Mount Egmont, on 
the coast of Taranaki; but, strange to say, it extends no farther to 
the north, though it grows freely from seeds, and may be cultivated 
at any point on the New Zealand coast. 
Forests of various kinds are more or less common near the coast, 
but their distribution is governed by the sea-wind, as also by the 
degree of cold of the area where they occur. Thus there are tree- 
less portions of the coast-line and other parts where the forest is 
reduced to scrub or where coastal scrubs occupy what would be its 
site. 
Frequently coastal forest does not greatly differ from that of the 
adjacent lowland; but there are certain coastal trees which appear 
in such a coastal community, and their presence both reveals the 
character of the forest and affects its appearance. The special coastal 
tree-associations are commonest in the Auckland Botanical Districts, 
but become less marked the farther south one goes until, with the 
