218 



SUBANTARCTIC ISLANDS OP NEW ZEALAND. 



[Ecological Botany. 



(v.) Olearia Lyallii Forest (fig. 12). 



This formation occupies a small portion of Ewing Island, and there are a few 

 trees in the neighbourhood of the Port Ross depot. The description already given 

 for the same formation on the Snares is also generally applicable here, except that a 

 considerable proportion of the trees are less prostrate, and the forest, 6 m. to 9 m., 

 is taller. Much of the forest-floor is bare except for a covering of fallen leaves. In 

 other places are seedhngs of all sizes by the hundred, the ground-surface being 

 glaucous-green from their presence ; also, the horizontal trunks are similarly occu- 

 pied, thanks to the crevices in the damp bark, in which the seed is caught and can 



Fio. 12. — Gknebal View oi' Olearia Lyallii Formation, Ewing Island, Alcklanu Gkoup. 



germinate. Shrubby undergrowth is altogether wanting ; here and there alone are 

 a few colonies of the ferns Blechnum durum, Polystichum veslitum, and Asplenium 

 ohtusatum. Probably the lack of undergrowth is due in part to the large number of 

 hair-seals frequenting this special forest. 



(vi.) Danthonia Meadow. 

 This formation succeeds the mountain scrub, at a distance giving a brown 

 colour and quite smooth appearance to the hillside. But a close acquaintance shows 

 the smoothness to be non-existent. The surface of the ground is most uneven, and 

 cut likewise by many gulhes, which, full of scrub, make a great obstacle to progress. 

 The grass itself is of the tussock habit, and usually is raised aloft upon peaty trunks 



