216 REPORT— 1891. 



being arranged in from five to eight series. The whole plant 

 is more densely tomentose, newly-formed leaves being white 

 above and below, the tomentmii on the upper surface being 

 fioccose and falling away during the first winter. The mature 

 leaves on old plants are excessively thick and coriaceous, 

 doubly crenate, with a very short, almost sheathing petiole: on 

 young specimens growing in the shade they were much thinner 

 in texture and very large, some measuring over Tin. in length 

 by 5in. in breadth. The flower-heads are crowded in terminal 

 racemes, 4in. to Tin. long : the rhachis, bracts, peduncles, and 

 outer involucral leaves being alike clothed with dense snow- 

 white pubescence. The remarkable difference in habit and 

 foliage causes it to present an appearance differing widely from 

 that of 0. colensoi, although the botanical distinctions are 

 almost trivial. It will be a valuable addition to the list of 

 New Zealand plants suitable for the purposes of the culti- 

 vator. It appears to be restricted to the Snares and the Auck- 

 land Islands, but is rare and local in the latter. The patches 

 of green which showed amongst the white masses of the Olearia 

 were found to be the foliage of another grand plant, Senecio 

 muelleri, T. Kirk, a noble species originally described''' from 

 specimens collected on Herekopere Island, in January, 1883 : 

 but the specimens in the original habitat are not nearly so large 

 as those on the Snares, which attain the extreme height of 

 26ft., with a short trunk 2ft. in cliameter. The branches are 

 somewhat naked, so that the tree has a straggling appearance, 

 but the handsome foliage and large terminal panicles of yellow 

 flowers place it amongst the finest members of a large genus 

 abounding in grand flowers. 



Vero7iica cllij^tica, to which reference has already been 

 made, completes the short list of ligneous plants. It is, how- 

 ever, of a more robust form than the plant found at Stewart 

 Island and the Bluff, the flowers being larger, with pure-white 

 corollas, which are never pencilled or streaked. The open land 

 is covered with tussocks of the remarkable grass Poafoliacea, 

 which produces a vast amount of nutritious herbage. The 

 tussocks are frequently interspersed with Carex trifida, the 

 largest of our New Zealand species ; and one or two small 

 plants of no great importance are hidden away in the hollows 

 at their base. 



One of the most interesting plants is Colohantlnis muscoides, 

 which is abundant on cliffs at the Auckland and Campbell 

 Islands, but appears to be confined to a patch of swampy 

 ground in this locality, which extends its northern range fully 

 a hundred and fifty miles. It forms rather large dense masses, 

 the inner portion consisting of the partially decomposed stems 



* Traus. N.Z. Inst., xv., p. 359. 



