226 Transactions.— Botany. 
The above list does not include several species which, although generally 
found on the mountains, are occasionally seen in littoralsituations. Amongst 
these may be mentioned Hymenanthera crassifolia, Colobanthus billardieri, 
Pimelea lyallii, Danthonia raoulii, Haloragis uniflora, Senecio lagopus, Gen- 
tiana montana, Utricularia monunthos, Herpolirion nove-zealandie, all of 
which are found on Stewart Island,* but there is no other locality in the 
colony where so large an assemblage of alpine plants can be found growing 
at the sea-level. 
It has been hastily assumed that this remarkable feature affords direct 
evidence of a severe climate. Mr. Petrie, in his Notes on Stewart Island, after 
recording the occurrence of Donatia nove-zealandie at sea-level in Paterson's 
Inlet, writes, “ It is extremely remarkable that a plant which does not descend 
below 8,000 feet in the latitude of Dunedin should flourish at sea-level in that 
of Paterson’s Inlet, and the fact bears emphatic testimony to the severity of the 
climate of Stewart Island.” + Again, referring to Senecio lyallii at intermediate 
levels in Port Pegasus, he writes, ** The occurrence of this alpine plant at so 
low a level in Stewart Island, as well as its dwarfed proportions, give additional 
proof of the severity of the climate in this part of the colony." It may be 
mentioned incidentally that I was unable to find Donatia at sea-level, and 
did not observe it below 2,700 feet. Senecio lyallii is usually dwarfed when 
growing on undrained peat soil; its favourite habitat is the side of a moun- 
tain stream, where it exhibits its greatest luxuriance, while specimens 
growing within a few yards on undrained soil are dwarfed and stunted. 
If this theory were correct it would be necessary to account for a still 
greater diffieulty—the occurrence of a varied and extremely luxuriant 
arboreal vegetation, including arborescent ferns, under the conditions 
incidental to a severe climate. Nowhere in alpine districts are the alpine 
plants enumerated on the preceding page associated with a varied and 
exuberant forest growth, still less with tree-ferns as is the case on both 
sides of the low moory ground at the head of Paterson’s Inlet. 
All the facts of the case are opposed to such a conclusion: the climate is 
remarkable for its mildness, and so far from being severe that it is much 
more favourable to a luxuriant plant-growth than that of many parts of the 
South Island, for instance the Canterbury Plains. It is true that the 
atmosphere is almost constantly moist, but snow does not fall on the 
lowlands, and frosts are not felt, Not only are many plants of mild climates 
eultivated in the gardens of the settlers, but the Clianthus, karaka, nikau, and 
other plants from the northern part of the colony, grow luxuriantly in the 
* Olearia colensoi and Senecio eleagnifolius descend to the sea-level in the West Coast 
Sounds. 
1 Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. xiii., p. 325. $ Le., p. 328, 
