Heath Plants. — Steppe Plants. 107 
shrub, of more or less fastigiate habit, very variable in stature, but finally 
attaining 3.6 m, or more. There is a fairly stout main-stem covered with 
reddish-brown bark which may hang in ribbons. The branches are slender, 
more or less vertical and finally give off numerous*close-growing twigs bearing 
abundant small, aromatic, dark-green, lanceolate to ovate, pungent-pointed 
leaves, 5—ı2 mm long,. which in mass are greyish. The flowers are on much- 
reduced shoots in the leaf-axils; they are white, ı cm or more in diam. and 
produced in the greatest profusion. The capsule is woody, sunk in the calyx- 
tube, contains abundance of minute brownish seeds, and is persistent for some 
‚years, capsules of various ages together with flowers being present at the 
same time. 
6b. Pteridium* esculentum (Forst f.) Cockayne (Filices), Rau-aruhe, Bracken. 
Possibly this fern is rather a variety of the cosmopolitan P. aguılınum, 
but it is confined to the Southern Hemisphere, and it is convenient to name 
it as above. Its growth-form is too well-known to need description. The 
leaves are frequentiy more than 1.75 m long. They are exceedingly plastic . 
and vary.in structure from xerophytic to hygrophytic according to environ- ' 
ment and from ordinary foliage-leaves to a liane-like habit. Since the advent 
of the white man the bracken has much increased, so that it must now. be 
considered as one of the most aggressive weeds. 
. Be 3. Steppe Plants. 
” a. Tussock Grasses. 
The tussock grasses of lowland steppe are, — Poa vhs Forst. f., 
(also found in Australia); Festuca elek (Hack) net (endemic, Es 
ei Danthonia Raoulü une and lowland only in Sout 
