amd consisting® of 22 ‚herbs, 10 Nee plants, ı rush-like and 2 ferns. 
3% is 5 the RT of forms of an a or subantarctic ‚character en 
68 The Vegetation of the Sea-coast. 
4%. Salt-meadow. 
This ‚association occurs on ground subject to flooding by brackish water 
brought at times of exceptionally high tides, or on wind-swept slopes &c. 
liable to occasional drenching by sea-spray. In winter, or after heavy rain, 
pools lie everywhere on the flat meadows. The soil may vary from clay to sand. 
None of the species are dependant upon excess of Na Cl in the substratum, 
though such is generally present. 
The composition of the association is fairly uniform throughout New Zea- 
land, but there is no rule as to dominance of any particular species. About 
21 species are common in some part or other of the formation belonging to 
ı3 families and ı7 genera and containing ı shrub, ı5 herbs, 3 rush-like and 
2 grass-like plants. 
funcus maritimus var. australiensis, Leptocarpus simplex or Plagianthus 
divaricatus may be abundant in places; and probably, prior to the settler’s fıres, 
were more plentiful still, but the physiognomy of the meadow depends less 
on the rush-form than on the presence of a close and even turf made up 
of the far-creeping perennial herbs Se/era radicans, Samolus repens and Cotula 
dioica. Equally abundant, indeed at times FERNE is the succulent Salz- 
cornia australis, and the summer-green grass Atropis stricta is also very com- 
mon. Other important species are:— Triglochin striata var. filifolia, Atriplex 
patula, Suaeda maritima, Spergularia media, Apium prostratum, A. filiforme 
and Cotula coronopifolia. In the S. of a Otago district and in Stewart 
| Island, Cozula Traillii and C. pulchella are plentiful, but there the association 
| is related to coastal-moor en bel low. 
| Ri 5. Cosetaleinar | en 
This temarkable. BT occurs locally in the S of the South Otago 
* and Stewart  districts and possibly in the Fiord district. The most typical moor 
is on the W. of the Bluff Peninsula to the S. of Ocean Beach, but smaller 
Er examples occur, at various localities, ‚on the shore of Foveaux Strait and on 
some of the small islands in the Strait itself. The presence. ofthe association 
 depends upon a substratum of sour peaty soil, the result of the subantarctic 
character of the climate and the nature of the plant-covering ‘). The habitat ; 
4 3 38 also exposed to showers of sea-spray, so so that there will be a greater per- 
 centage of NaCl in the soil than in the. case e of Bemge on ee | 
lies in pools and some of these are erma: 
The species number about 35 Be to 18 families. ind 30. genera 
RE ae ER N 4% 
“ Samolus. repens var.  frnsechenn,. Selhiera radicans, and Cotula dioica. "But it 
common, e.g. — Salicornia australis, 
