88 Transactions. 
Perhaps no part of the island has been so closely examined for plants as 
the district between Whangarei and the North Cape. It is, therefore, not 
improbable that some of the forms which I have attempted to discriminate 
in this paper may have been observed by other botanists, although I am 
ignorant of such observations having been published. 
ArT. X.—On the Botany of the Great Barrier Island. By T. KIRK. 
Tur Great Barrier Island presents but few physical features calculated to 
exercise a marked influence on the character of its flora: the central and 
northern parts of the island are excessively broken into deep gullies and 
ravines, by the low mountain ranges which intersect them in various direc- 
tions, nearly the whole of which are covered with forest to their highest 
peaks, 2,300 to 2,400 feet, leaving but small patches of open country. The 
hills in the southern part of the island are of much lower elevation, and 
there is a larger extent of fern land. Much of the land, however, is of 
barren quality, and, on the whole, offers a less varied vegetation than in the 
north. 
On the eastern coast there is a considerable tract of sand dunes and 
swamps, where a few peculiar plants may be found. 
The general character of the bush greatly resembles that of the main 
land north of Auckland, its chief points of difference being the scarcity of 
the Tarairi, Nesodaphne tarairi, and the great abundance of Panas sinclairii, 
which is found from the sea level to the crests of the ranges. The prevalent 
trees are Nesodaphne tawa, Dammara australis, Persoonia toro, Weinmannia 
silvicola, Dacrydium cupressinum, Metrosideros lucida, M. tomentosa, Leptos- 
permum ericoides, Vitex littoralis, Corynocarpus levigata, Eleocarpus dentatus, | 
Dysoxylum spectabile, Knightia excelsa, &c., &c., with the arborescent ferns 
Cyathea medullaris and. C. dealbata. 
On the higher parts of the ranges, Zxerba brexioides, Dacrydium colensot, 
Dacrydium, n.s., Phyllocladus glauca, Epacris sinclairii (which here attains 
the height of 12 feet), Metrosideros albiflora, Olearia, sp., and Dracophyllum 
latifolium, are chiefly found. Archeria racemosa, which is supposed to be 
peculiar to the island, is very local, and only found between 800 and 2,000 
feet of elevation. 
.. Most of the ordinary nad plants are found on | the eastern coast: 
Lease seléiuelia, ierat spiralis, Spinifes hirsutus, Coprosma 
