134 NEW ZEALAND PLANTS. 
baby birds, clad in downy robes of snowy whiteness, each seated on 
its flat, cheese-shaped nest, brave for months the piercing antarctic 
blasts, until their time shall come to seek the white-topped waves 
and follow in the wake of the great ships. 
Seen from the sea or from an eminence, a brown covering appears 
to clothe the whole surface of Antipodes Island, save where it is 
traversed by irregular dark lines—these indicating the presence of 
low coprosma scrub or of the prickly shield-fern (Polystichum vestitum) 
—almost a tree-fern with its short stout trunk. The brown covering 
denotes the close-growing tussocks of Poa litorosa, which, in dense 
ranks, occupy nearly the whole island. At first, as mentioned above, 
the tussocks are raised 4 feet high or more on their trunks, but they 
decrease in size according to the distance from the sea, while more 
and more abundant becomes the prickly shield-fern. When these 
dominating plants decrease to a reasonable size other species join the 
association, especially Anisotome antipoda, with its leaves bright green 
and much cut ; the antarctic piripiri (Acaena Sanguisorbae var. minor), 
of a pale bluish-green hue; and the water-fern (Histiopteris incisa), 
of a tender green. Where there is open ground certain lichens put in 
an appearance—e.g., Sticta Freycinetii and other leafy species of that 
genus, together with several species of Cladonia, and Usnea articulata. 
Liverworts and mosses, and the filmy fern Hymenophyllum multifidum, 
are also abundant on the wet peat. 
Perhaps the most interesting association of Antipodes Island is 
bog, since it so clearly demonstrates the selective power of deep 
peat saturated with water. This comes out in an especially striking 
manner, as the choice of plants is limited to the small flora of the 
island. In such bog tussock-grass is virtually absent ; the great pale- 
green leaves of Plewrophyllum criniferum and the grass-like Carex 
ternaria—this the dominant plant—mark off, at a glance, bog from 
boggy tussock-grassland. Certain plants—some of stately form—are 
more abundant in the bog than in the grassland, especially Anisotome 
antipoda, Stilbocarpa polaris, Coprosma repens, and C. cuneata. The 
filmy fern Hymenophyllum multifidum forms close patches of greenery. 
Where the ground is heavily manured by the giant petrel (Oss?- 
fraga gigantea) grows a fine herbaceous groundsel peculiar to the 
island and with no near relative elsewhere — Senecio antipodus. 
Associated with this striking plant are thick masses of the antarctic 
piripiri (Acaena Sanguisorbae var. minor) mixed with the water-fern 
