 Moxno.— Geographical Botany of Nelson and Marlborough. 167 
Large and handsome Aanunculi spread out their glossy yellow. petals to 
the sun. Different varieties of Gentian show their spikes of whitish 
flowers. The Wahlenbergia saxicola recalls the Harebell of our native woods. 
The quaint-looking Craspedia exhibits its ball of blossoms on the top of a 
tall and slender stem; and the silvery petals of the Raoulia are seen 
studded like stars over the surface of compact masses of vegetation that 
might be taken at the first glance for moss. But the characteristic plants of 
this zone are the different varieties^of Celmisia. The number of these is 
immense; and as they all carry conspicuous, daisy-like flowers, from the 
Celmisia coriacea, the blossom of which is as large as a five-shilling-piece, 
down to the slender Celmisia gracilenta, the alpine heights during the long 
days of summer are really quite gay with colour. 
In enumerating the blossoming plants of that zone, we must not forget 
the shrubs. There is the Hoheria, for instance, growing in the gullies, a 
most graceful shrub, carrying a great abundance of conspieuous drooping 
white flowers. "There is the Gaultheria, the closest relative to our native 
heath of anything that grows in the country; various species of shrubby 
Senecios; the dwarf Carmichelias, with the large pea-shaped blossoms, 
- lying close to the ground; the quaint-looking Ozofhamaus with its glossy 
green tuberculated branches and terminal yellow flowers ; and chief of all, 
a great variety of most beautiful dwarf Veronicas, symmetrical in the 
extreme, bright in their foliage, some bearing spikes, others flat heads of 
blossoms, but all of them conspicuous and charming objects. Higher than 
most of the others are the different species of Thlaspi, plants of the 
cruciferous order, some of them deliciously fragrant; and highest of all is 
that strange looking plant of the composite family, the Haastia, which is 
seen where nothing else grows, on the bare slopes of gravel, looking like 
a large globular mass of white felt, not unfrequently mistaken for a stray 
sheep. 
In addition to those I have mentioned, the botanical explorer of the 
alpine regions will find, of course, a great number of other plants of 
interest, and doubtless some still new to science. I have said nothing of the 
Gnaphaliums, of the varieties of the Violet, the Epilobium, the Spear-grass 
(Aciphylla), the Euphrasia, or the different species of Orchis, which are to 
be found on the mountains; but I trust I have said enough to satisfy the 
reader that the alpine botany of New Zealand possesses its own special 
characteristics, has a physiognomy entirely different from that of the sea 
levels, and offers to the lovers of natural objects a most interesting field 
of exploration. 
I find it impossible to refer to the subject of the alpine botany of New 
Zealand apart from the memory of the late Dr. Andrew Sinclair. In 
