SPECIES OF FELL-FIELD. 109 
A few specially common or remarkable plants easily observed 
may be noted. Celmisias of several species are abundant, especially 
the common cotton-plant (Celmisia spectabilis) (fig. 62) and the 
remarkable C. Lyallii, which has somewhat the form of a spaniard, 
with its stiff, erect, sharp-poimted leaves, which have also the 
anatomical structure of a desert- grass. There will be numerous 
circular mats of different kinds of mountain-musk — e.g., Celmisia 
discolor, C. intermedia, and C. Sinclairii. Frequently the lovely 
creeping mountain-foxglove (Ourisia caespitosa) will form broad green 
mats. The coral-broom (Corallospartium crassicaule) occurs on a 
good many mountains; its extremely rigid leafless grooved stems, 
yellowish in colour, look hardly alive. There will be large 
tussocks of the broad-leaved snow-grass (Danthonia flavescens). At 
high altitudes the celmisias will be C. viscosa or C. Haastii. There 
will also be small moss-like cushions of Veronica pulvinaris—a gem 
when covered with its white flowers; tiny spear-grasses (Aciphylla 
Monroi and its near relatives) ; cushions of a forget-me-not, Myosotis 
pulvinaris (Central Otago); small glaucous veronicas (V. pinguifolia 
and its allies); silvery cushions of the large-flowered raoulia (Raouwlia 
grandiflora) ; various species of needle-leaved heath (Dracophyllum) ; 
and the mountain-totara (Podocarpus nivalis), a most characteristic 
fell-field plant (fig. 51). 
A fell-field association which must not be neglected is that of the 
Dun Mountain (Nelson), which occupies a portion of the celebrated 
“Mineral Belt,” the rocks of which are peridotite and serpentine. 
On the adjacent non-serpentine area there is luxuriant southern- 
beech forest, but the moment the serpentine appears the forest 
ceases, and a fell-field association or tall tussock-grassland, as the 
case may be, commences. The contrast between the forest and 
the Mineral Belt associations is most striking, and puts one in mind 
of the sudden appearance on the coast of salt-meadow—the result 
of an excess of salt, just as the Mineral Belt associations are due to 
an excess of magnesia. It is true that at the junction between the 
two there is a certain amount of shrubland, but what are trees 
outside the serpentine become at once shrubs when the influence 
of its soil is felt, as in the case of the broadleaf (Griselinia littoralis) 
and tall red southern-beech (Nothofagus fusca). 
There are certain species absolutely confined to the serpentine— 
e.g., the prostrate shrub Pimelea Suteri ; the pretty forget-me-not. 
