84 A NEW ZEALAND NATURALIST'S CALENDAR. 



aspect to all nature. This is particularly noticeable in the 

 neighbourhood of Dunedin, where the hills and vales, with 

 their still remaining stretches of woodland, form so many 

 shady spots which the sun seldom touches in the winter 

 months. Our hills too, so high and so near the sea, cause 

 a much greater condensation of moisture than is common 

 either immediately north or south, so that though the 

 rainfall may not be excessive, there is a great prevalence 

 of mist, especially when the wind is from the north-east. 

 Though the actual amount of rain which falls in Dunedin is 

 smaller than that recorded from many other centres for 

 example, from Auckland or Wellington yet the atmos- 

 phere here is so often at saturation point that dampness 

 may be termed one of its chief characteristics. 



In writing recently of the modes of distribution of fruits 

 and seeds, a subject which naturally suggests itself at this 

 season of the year, I made mention of the piri-piri (Accena) 

 as a curious example of a plant dependent 011 passing 

 animals for the scattering of the fruit (p. 74). I pointed 

 out the fact that while the species with a wide distribution 

 outside of New Zealand had barbed fruits, the indigenous 

 forms had lost these devices. A parallel case is furnished 

 by certain sedges belonging to the genus Uncinia. These 

 grass-like plants, furnished like many other "cutting 

 grasses'' with scabrid edges to their leaves, are found 

 along the fringe and in the more open parts of the bush, as 

 well as in damp sedgy ground. They are, for instance, 

 abundant about the shooting range at Pelichet Bay. 

 When the fruiting spikes are ripe they are furnished with 

 long bristles carrying a strong barb at the point one to 

 each fruit and these catch on to any passing animal. The 

 explanation of this barbed structure in a New Zealand plant 

 where there are no indigenous mammalia is the same as 

 that for piri-piri. Uncinia is a genus which ranges away 

 to South America on the one hand and to Australia and 

 South Africa on the other. This wide range points to a 

 considerable antiquity for the genus, and its mode of 

 distribution has evidently been developed in lands where 

 mammals were to be found. Of course both piri-piri and 



