TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION D. 221 



nica hcntliami, a small dwarf species, with deep glossy-green 

 foliage and flowei's of the deepest blue, is plentiful in situations 

 near the sea. Myosotis capitata is also to be found with large 

 deep-blue flowers, which rise above its leaves. Lastly may be 

 mentioned the fine gentians, G. concinna and G. cerina, with 

 glossy leaves, and waxy flowers of white, purple, or reddish- 

 purple, or white w'ith vertical stripes of red. It may safely be 

 asserted that no other islands of such limited area, outside the 

 tropics, can show such an assemblage of endemic floral splen- 

 dour : not only are the flowers beautiful in themselves, but, w^ith 

 two exceptions only, they are produced in profusion, the plants 

 covering large areas. 



But there are other plants the flowers of w'hich, although 

 less attractive, are of great botanical interest. Stilbocaiya 

 2)olaris is a striking plant, and from the attractions of its 

 foliage might fairly have been included in the list of plants 

 of remarkable beauty. It is a monotypic Araliad with radical 

 reniform leaves, sometimes l^ft. in diameter, and large com- 

 pact masses of waxy-looking yellowish flowers. It occurs 

 everyw^iere at low elevations on these islands, and is of a 

 decidedly antarctic type, extending from Macquarie Island 

 northward to Antipodes Island. It is often associated with a 

 large-leaved nettle, Urtica austniUs, but the nettle is restricted 

 to the immediate vicinity of the sea. Cotula pluinosa and 

 C. lanata, two fine species of great interest, are found on clifi^s 

 and in situations exposed to the wash of the spray. Ahro- 

 tanella sjxithulata grows luxuriantly from sea-level to 1,000ft. 

 Some of the specimens collected were fully 4in. high. Stellaria 

 clecipiens, a prostrate species bearing a close resemblance to 

 the European Arenaria trtnervi a, occurs in low woods near the 

 sea. 



The hillsides, where not clothed with bush, were mostly 

 covered with a growth of coarse sedges and grasses, often form- 

 ing tussocks. Owing to the heavy rainfall, the spaces between 

 the tussocks, not held together by their roots, had been washed 

 away, so that the grasses were in some places higher than a 

 man, rendering it a w^ork of fatigue to travel amongst them. 

 This state of things w'as characteristic of nearly all sloping 

 surfaces on these islands. On the tops of the hills progress 

 was but little impeded, the surface-growth being low. It was 

 most interesting to see the tussock-scenery of the interior of 

 Canterbury and Otago largely reproduced here by Danthonia 

 bromoides, which occurs in several localities near the sea 

 in the North Island, but rarely exceeds 18in. in stature. 

 In the Auckland Islands it forms tussocks as large as 

 those of D. raoulii or D. flavescens, but much handsomer 

 than either — a fact which is partly due to the leaves being 

 green, not brown. Its apparent absence from the South 



