SUBANTARCTIC FOREST. 129 
CHAPTER IX. 
THE FLORA AND VEGETATION OF THE OUTLYING 
ISLANDS. 
A goblin forest—The subantarctic flora—Composition of the subantarctic forest 
—Remnant of an ancient subantarctic tree-formation—Plants of the sea- 
shore—The splendid herbaceous plants—Subantarctic tussocks—Vegetation 
of Antipodes Island—Vegetation of Macquarie Island—A ‘“‘ wind-desert’”’— 
Vegetation of the Snares—A natural rotation of crops—The Bounty 
Islands — Flora of the Chatham Islands— The Chatham Island forest — 
Chatham Island bogs—The giant forget-me-not—Some interesting Chatham 
Island plants—Flora of the Kermadec Islands—Lack of tropical species in 
the Kermadecs—Plants peculiar to the group—Rock associations—Ngaio 
scrub — The two kinds of forest and their trees— The two tree-ferns — 
Luxuriance of New Zealand trees on the Kermadecs. 
Lanps of mist and sleet and hail, of fierce squalls born in the icy 
south ; cruel, rock-bound coasts, scenes of brave men’s death or of 
fierce struggles with the angry sea; lands of brown hills, enclosed 
by thick woods, weird and grotesque—in very truth goblin forests, 
patrolled and sentinelled by uncouth monsters of the deep: such 
impression may our far-off subantarctic islands give at first. 
A closer view, and scenes more pleasing greet the traveller. 
Despite the ever-present gales, fields of magnificent flowers clothe 
the hills in summer-time. Within the forest, beneath the thick 
entanglement of gnarled and twisted branches of the trees, multi 
tudes of ferns spread out their feathery leaves into the dim light. 
The knotted trunks, the fallen trees, the uneven ground—all are 
thickly covered with a mantle most delicate of translucent filmy 
ferns. Mounds of exquisite liverworts of many species adorn both 
forest-floor and boles of trees. Thickets of shrubs abound. All is 
one close mass of vegetation, save where long bare paths of dark 
peat lead from the dim recesses of the forest, along which a 
startled sea-lion may glide, fearful of the intruder, or one at bay 
greet him with angry roar and open jaws (fig. 85). 
It is in the Lord Auckland Islands alone of these lonely southern 
lands that true forests are to be found. In Campbell Island trees are 
9—Plants. 
