222 



SUBANTARCTIC ISLANDS OF NEW ZEALAND. 



[Ecological Botany. 



last-named grass is the much less abimdant plant, and occurs generally in pure 

 patches of small area. 



The meadow of Disappointment Island,* owing to its excessively wind-swept 

 character, possesses certain features of its own, and merits special description. 

 Poa Jitorosn is dominant, but there are sheets of P. foliosa all through the formation. 

 Danihonia antarctica also occurs in some places. A rather striking feature are small 

 dark-coloured, almost black, clumps of Polystichum vestitum. Quite hidden by the 

 tussocks is, in places, a low scrub, made up of Coprosma pnrmflora, C. cuneata, 

 C. foetidissima, Suttonia divaricata, Cassinia Vauvilliersii, and Dracophyllum longi- 

 fdium. Acaena Sanguisorhae var. antarctica occurs here and there climbing over 



I'lli. 14. ROMETTES OF PUuTOph Ijllll III tpecioSUIIl FJjAT1EN£1> to GliOlNll. 



the tussock. Where streams and swampy ground occur Carex appressa is present. 

 In some places the formation is invaded by Pleurophyllum criniferum, Stilbocarpa 

 polaris, and other plants of the Pleurophyllum meadow ; in fact, there are transitions 

 between the two formations. Other plants of the formation are Nertera depressa 

 and Blechnum durum. 



* This island had not been previously visited by a naturalist. I noted about thirty-one species of 

 spermophytes and pteridophytes. Bryophytcs and lichens are poorly represented. There is no forest, 

 but a good deal of scrub of Veronica cUiptica and species of Coprosma existed before it was cut down by 

 the unfortunate castaways from the " Dundonald." New Zealand readers may see a popular account 

 of the vegetation, by myself, in the Lyttelton Times for the 3rd December, 1907. 



