100 NEW ZEALAND PLANTS. 
them ; the frost attacking them, even when they are growing rapidly, 
must be combated ; for an unstable footing on the soil they must be 
provided: in short, they must be distinct in many ways from the 
plants of the lowlands. 
Low stature is obviously of great advantage for various reasons, 
so Nature has selected for her mountain gardens many plants which 
either hug the ground or are veritable dwarfs. Thus out of 500 
high-mountain species of herbs and semi-woody plants 138 are 
between | foot and 6 inches high, 199 are less than 6 inches high, 
and 92 either closely hug the ground or are less than 2 inches 
high. Even a tall tree such as the kamahi (Weinmannia racemosa) 
becomes in the subalpine scrub a shrub well fitted to resist both 
snow and wind. 
Cushion-plants (some of extreme density), mat-plants, turf-making 
plants, rosette - herbs pressed to the soil, rigid- stemmed plants, 
plants with rigid leaves (Aciphylla), leafless shrubs, shrubs with 
much reduced leaves—these are all more or less frequent on the 
high mountains. 
Certain structures or characteristics are more or less common 
—e.g., hairmess, woolly, leathery, thick, or fleshy leaves: thus of 
500 herbs and semi-woody high-mountain plants no fewer than 315 
have leaves of this character (63 per cent. of the 500). 
A rather curious feature is that of dead leaf-sheaths and other parts 
of a plant remaining attached to the living plant and turning into 
peat. Such peat is always sopping wet, and when the plant puts 
forth roots into it, as is often the case, it has a constant water-supply 
of its own—quite a useful possession during even a short drought. 
On the other hand, this phenomenon is also correlated with absence 
of sunlight and prevalence of rain and’ mist—just such a climate 
as exists in the subantarctic islands to-day. Such an adaptation 
perhaps indicates that part of the New Zealand alpine flora originated 
not on the high mountains at all, but in the sunless and wet climate 
of the south. This is the more feasible since the subantarctic and 
Andean plants of South America possess the same habit to an equal 
degree. r 
If Nature failed to deck the forest and the grassland with 
beautiful blossoms, she made ample amends in the high mountains, 
though she was not lavish with colour, for, with a few exceptions, 
the flowers are white or yellow. This peculiarity was first of all 
