Grass and Herb Formations. 247 
consists of pale-green grass-like tufts of Carpha an the leaf apices straw- 
coloured dead and twisted; close low cushions of Donatia novae-zelandiae, the 
‚green leaves with bright orange tips pressed together into small rosettes;, 
Dracophyllum politum much like Donatia but the leaves more open and tip- | 
ped with red; green cushions of Oreodolus pectinatus and growing through and 
mixed with the whole almost everywhere Astelia linearis and the small, flat, 
glaucous leaves of the grass Microlaena Thomsoni. Although the covering is 
made up of cushions, that form is masked through their growing into one 
another. At less than one metre apart, everywhere project obliquely above 
the general mass tufts of the rigid, sharp-pointed pale-green or reddish-brown 
leaves of the ungrass-like grass Danthonia pungens. On the schist mountains, 
where the soil becomes dryer, the general carpet is everywhere dotted with 
the silvery, dense cushions of Celmisia argentea (Plate LIII Fig. 82), and the 
more open and greenish tinged of C. Zinearis. Where the cushions of this 
latter unite, there are conspicuous silvery patches. Sometimes, for as far as 
the eye can see, there are the broad, shining green leaves in starry rosettes 
of Senecio anronder and, in Berker; its great white flower-heads. On 
the granite mountains, this latter and C. Zinearis are absent, C. argentea is 
rare, but there are sage-green circular mats of C. ee Chrysobactron. 
 Gibbsii in abundance and Veronica buxifolia var. prostrata. 
The following also occur more or less in the association: — Pe 
fastigiatum, Hierochloe Fraseri, Danthonia semiannularis, Prasophyllum Colensot, 
 Caltha novae=s selandiae, Anisotome aromatica, Pentachondra pumila, Suttomia 
"ummularıa, Gentiana lineata, G. Grisebachii, Euphrasia Dyeri, Phyllachne | 
 Colensoi, Forstera sedifolia var. oculata, Celmisia ie: Raoulia a a 
at times) and Senecio belhdioides.. ae 
On the mountains of the South Island generally, 
u: ever so dense a turf ran ofe Yin 
Ps 
r or other. i 
The dwarf Bi Da 
and makes a compact and contin 
ah of the shrub D. Bidkwillii 
