THE SHRUBS AND HERBACEOUS PLANTS OF NEW ZEALAND 27 
Hymenophyllum (34) and lichen, with patches of Asplenium faleatum 
(29) on the ground, brings us out on the small clear plateau of Mt. 
Stokes (3,990 feet) where, in the summer month of January, there is 
a perfect garden of alpine flowers. Members of the ranunculus family 
(R. multiscapus 13) of the Senacios (18), the Celmisias (16) the 
Pimelias (7) together with a minute gnaphelium (17) form a carpet of 
blossom in many colours. 
The Pimelias are claimed by the Daphne family and are very 
much like the shrubby veronicas in leaf, but the 2-staminate flowers 
are regular. 
The Veronicas would take a volume to describe. Hooker had 
about forty New Zealand species growing at Kew. In the severe 
winter of 1894-5 he lost thirty-five. Theshrubby Veronicas growing 
in Burton gardens have their origin in New Zealand. There are 
now eighty-four described by Cheeseman, who has recently com- 
pleted Kirk’s unfinished Flora. Dr. Lauder Lindsay, in 1861, 
writing of the Colony’s Veronicas, refers to the ‘‘continuity of 
variation”? in this genus, the species of which are ever being 
extended and, very likely, alter under cultivation and environment, 
as pointed out by Laing and Blackwell in a recent admirable work. 
Annihilating distance, we return to the shore and visit a small 
island set in the calm waters of the Sound. Crowded bunches of 
Rock Lilies (Artbropodium cirrhatum) greet us. Its delicate green 
leaves, white flowers and purple stamens are attractive enough to 
secure a place in British catalogues. Two Coprosimas fringe the 
island, whilst one of them (C baueriana) is much used in Wellington 
for hedges. as it will stand close clipping. A white frame of an 
endemic linum (L monogynum, 20). growing to the water’s edge, 
completes the island picture. 
In order to take a short survey of the typical swamp flora, we 
must take our boat to the mouth of the creek, where on the shingly 
bank dense low growing bushes of one of the polygonacez (Muhlen- 
beckia, 3) offers a soft springy couch for a resting place. On the banks 
alse grow the lace-bark or ribbon-wood (Hoheria), so called because of 
its lace-like bast tissue. It is one of the Malvacez, and side by side 
is one of the Leguminose having large yellow clusters of flowers. 
This is the Kowhai, or New Zealand laburnum (Sophora tetraphera, 
11), the blossoms of which are much frequented by the native honey- 
