8:70 “ ©, General Remarks on the High Mountain Vegetation. 
possessing a modified subantarctic climate. To the first two classes belong 
xerophytes of physically dry stations and to the latter bog-xerophytes and 
subalpine-scrub shrubs. Actual “alpine” associations, and not isolated species 
only, occur at sea-level, such as those already briefly described in Part II, 
Chapter IV, under the heading “Rock and Cliff”. As to the causes furthering 
this pherriomenon something is said under heading 5 of this chapter. 
%. Repeopling the new ground during the Retreat of the Glaciers. 
Even today, glaciated New Zealand is not altogether a thing of the past. 
Leaving out of consideration the great eastern glaciers of the central Southern 
Alps, a fair idea of what glaciated Westland was like is afforded by the 
Franz Josef and Fox glaciers with their terminal faces at zıı m and 204m 
 respectively and distant only a few kilometres from the sea. At the present 
time, the peopling of the new ground just abandoned by the ice can be ob- 
served, together. with. what‘ has taken place at no distant date, indeed every 
transition can be plainly seen from bare rock, or moraine ä year or so old, 
to forest. It seems then not unreasonable to conclude that what is happening 
at the present time is merely a repetition of what occurred throughout the 
Western botanical district at the conclusion of the New Zealand ice-age. To 
‚the E of the Be Alps, Be Broces | is  beclouded, but even there Ian 
‚Three. habitats a are being invaded, - = - rock smoothed ei. the ice, moraine | 
(both. lateral and. te r | 
Be extensive. 
