50 



vigorous and abundant. V. Hectori of the whipcord form, and so 

 characteristic of the Fiord and South Otago Botanical Districts and 

 V. Buchanani have here apparently their northern limits. Another 

 shrub characteristic of the south, but here also abundant, is Olearia 

 moschata. In fact, the area occupies a rather critical position, 

 situated as it is at the eastern limit reached by the heavy westerly 

 rain, and not very far from the southern limit of the botanical 

 district the Western to which it belongs. 



In hollows on the mountains the snow often lies long into the 

 summer, when the steeper ground adjacent has been for many weeks 

 clear. Such hollows e.g., on the Sealey Range have a special 



FIG. 22. The vegetable sheep (Raoulia eximia), a plant of the daisy 

 family forming hard cushions on rocky ground, Mount Torlesse 

 Range, Canterbury. 



vegetation consisting of a thick mat of Danthonia oreophila var. 

 (not known elsewhere), Astelia monticola (a distinct species not yet 

 described), and a species of Aciphylla related to A. Monroi but much 

 larger. At a higher altitude similar hollows are the growing-place 

 of Celmisia Hectori, which is absent on the drier ground. 



The small piece of forest (Governor's Bush) near the Hermitage 

 has Nothofagus Menziesii as its sole tall tree not N. cliff or tioides, 

 as one might expect. The association gradually changes into low 

 forest of Phyllocladus alpinus, which in its turn gives place to 

 subalpine scrub much as already described but containing many 

 more species. 



L. COCKAYNE. 



