‘ 
220 The Plant Formations of the High Mountains. 
localities there is a closed scrub with C. Vawvzlliersii or C. albida (North-eastern 
district) dominant. With these may be associated one or more shrub-composites, 
Phormium Cookianum and on Flagstaff Hill the tree-fern Alsophila Colensoi. 
y) E Phyll 354 serub. 
Piyliociddes alpinus is dominant. The scrub has frequently the same com- 
- position almost as the adjacent shrub-composite association, but the dominance 
of the taxad lends a distinct facies and colour. The low Phyllocladus forest 
of the Volcanic Plateau already described when of low stature is a scrub, as 
in certain gullies on Mt. Tongariro and the Kaimanawa Mountains. Its other 
species are: — Dracophyllum montanum (dominant in places), Nothopanax Co- 
lensoi, N. simplex, N. Sinclair, Griselinia littoralis, Leptospermum scoparium, 
Coprosma cuneata, C. parviflora, C. foetidissima and Olearia nummularıfola. 
“In the S. Island eg scrub is common in the castern part of the 
Western district. 
6) Mountain-ribbonwood (Gaya. Zyalli) serub. 
is occurs ei the chain of the Southern Alps except in Pr 
Ncih-ägse ‚and in the North-west districts. It is dependant on a high rain- 
fall. The association readily grades into forest, and such in the Fiord district 
‚appears to be an early stage of Nothofagus Menziesii forest. The vivid light 
green of the Gaya clearly marks the association even from a distance. 
ae N are those of the neighbouring scrub, Ser suicieny 
defined. | 
[I 
5 RER taxad serub. Bar 
On et ground. occupying roches moutonees, truncated spurs it an- 
cient moraine on the central chain of the Southern Alps are open or dense 
scrubs with Dacrydium biforme and D. Bidwillii dominant. D. Bidwillii alone 
forms patches of scrub on quite dry moraine‘) fully exposed to wind and sun 
throughout the South Island where there is a steppe-climate. The shrub is 
then generally prostrate and forms low eircular loose cushions, its branches 
creeping and rooting. The erect form is ‚also, at times, dominant i in ER 
mixed subalpine scrub. | 
"Mount Greenland (gı5 mE an isolated. oda in the N. of the Western 
er contains near its. summit a Age distinet ‚form of en Alex 
