Floristic details. Forest plants. 97 
do not reach an altitude of goo m. The greater part of the 348 species belong 
either to that portion of the steppe area where lowland and high mountain 
species mingle or to the montane and subalpine forest, the members of which 
are exposed to conditions materially different from those of an open subalpine 
or alpine hillside. Further, many plants of lowland lakes, swamps and bogs 
find conditions not very different to what they are accustomed in the allied 
habitats up to about goo m altitude. So, too, the conditions offered by rocks 
and river-beds from sea-level to 600, or even 900 m altitude in some localities, 
are not very different. 
Some species occur so abundantly both in certain lowland, or coastal, 
and high mountain formations as to be of great physiognomic importance, 
especially, — Polystichum vestitum, Danthonia Raoul, Poa caespitosa, Festuca 
novae-zealandiae, Hypolaena lateriflora; Phormium Cookianum; Nothofagus 
Menziesii; Weinmannia racemosa, Discaria toumatou;, Leptospermum scoparium, 
Metrosideros lucida; Dracophyllum longifolium; Suttonia divaricata, Veronica 
salicifolia, V. Hulkeana, Coprosma foetidissima; Olcaria insignis, Raoulia 
australis, R. lutescens, R. tenuicaulis, Cassinia Vaunitlliersiü. Although the 
same species may be present alike in the subalpine, alpine and lowland belts 
yet under the local environments the growth-form may be altogether different 
as in the case of ZLepfospermum scoparium as a low tree in a lowland forest 
and a prostrate, rooting mat on a subalpine moor, or Weinmannia racemosa 
a tall, massive tree in the lowlands and a dense shrub in the subalpine scrub. 
The ecological conditions of the lowland-lower mountain belt are so dis- 
similar in different parts of the area that no general account can be given 
here. The effect of change in latitude, or & excessive rainfall in certain 
localities, has already been alluded to in regard to the coastal vegetation and 
the same remarks hold equally with he to the lowlands and lower hills. Br 
Chapter E; en 
The leading Aa Gr ee and ie | 
a. The Tas araccar. 
ARE various Grat = Tazaceae 
wir 
