VEGETATION OF THE STATION PRIOR TO SETTLEMENT 103 



were covered almost entirely with flax (Phormium tenax) and raupo 

 (Typha angustifolia). The height of these plants varied with the 

 drainage ; on lands firm and dry each reached a noble growth ; on 

 areas of quaking bog they survived, soured and stunted with excessive 

 wet. On dry ground grew also patches of the graceful toe-toe grass 

 (Arundo conspicua). The outer edges of these marshes were rough 

 with nigger's -head (Carex secta) and other coarse sedges and rushes. 

 Sparganium antipodium also grew in certain parts, a plant remarkable 

 in this, that it is the only native which has to my knowledge disap- 

 peared during my time on the station. 



Lastly, there were on Opouahi and Heru-o-Tureia ten or twenty 

 acres of upland meadow studded with huge, hollow, gnarled, dead, 

 upright, broadleaf boles (Griselinia littoralis). On the ground lay 

 in vast numbers totara spars and rotting trunks of other podocarps. 

 These scraps of open upland had been under forest within sixty or eighty 

 years, perhaps less. They were too high and cold for fern. For some 

 reason not easy to understand, no crop of trees had sprung to possess 

 the ground. It was grassed with yellow tussock (Poa ccespitosa), 

 scented grass (Hierochloe redolens), one of those highly interesting 

 Fuegian species, 1 Poa anceps, and other high-country grasses. Amid 

 this rough turf many interesting species had obtained a hold and were 

 flourishing. In their proper periods, groupings and strips of Pimelea 

 longifolia and Helichrysum bellidioides made a brave show of blossom. 

 On a spot most desolate and damp I have got the rare Brachycome 

 odorata. The small terrestrial orchid, Pterostylis Banksii, was very 

 plentiful in its season. In a sheltered nook, for the first and only 

 time on Tutira, I have found the charming Caladenia bifolia. An in- 

 teresting group of plants, including amongst its species the " vegetable 

 sheep " of New Zealand, was represented by Raoulia australis. Other 

 sub-Alpines of this upland meadow were Brachycome Sinclairii, Celmisia 

 incana, Gentiana Grisebachii, Plantago Raoulii, Wahlenbergia saxicola, 

 a delicate pale blue-bell, the barbed Acsena Novse Zealandise, Spear-grass 



1 " The Fuegian element of the New Zealand flora," writes Dr L. Cockayne in the second 

 edition of his delightful 'New Zealand Plants and their Story,' "although considerably smaller 

 than the Australian element, has given rise to far more speculation. This arises from the fact 

 that though biological geographers have been willing to erect a ' land bridge ' between Northern 

 Australia, Malaya, and New Zealand, many have hesitated before in imagination turning into 

 dry land the profound depths of ocean which lie between New Zealand and Antarctica or South 

 America. At the same time the presence of this Fuegian element so far distant from its present 

 home has to be explained." 



