Peteie. — On the Flora of Stewart Island. 825 



another species of Actinotus f Hemiphuesj occurs in the same localities, but by 

 no means in such abundance as A. (H.) novce-zealandicB. The plant in 

 question was found only in fruit, the structure of which presented all the 

 characteristics of the genus, and it will, I have little doubt, prove to be 

 another species of this anomalous genus, probably new to science, and 

 certainly new to the flora of New Zealand. It is worthy of remark that in 

 Tasmania both Liparophyllum and Actinotus (Hemiphues) grow in alpine 

 bogs and moist places, while in Stewart Island they flourish almost at sea 

 level. 



The occurrence of Donatia novce-zealandm at the same low elevation 

 is certainly surprising. It has not been found either in the bogs of South- 

 land or on the Bluff Hill, which offers many situations favourable for its 

 growth. The lowest elevation at which I have elsewhere met with it is 

 3000 feet, on the summit of Maungatua, near the Taieri Plain. Lyall 

 found it on mountains near Preservation Inlet, but the height is not stated. 

 It is extremely remarkable that a plant which does not descend below 3000 

 feet in the latitude of Dunedin should flourish at sea-level in that of Pater- 

 son's Inlet, and the fact bears emphatic testimony to the severity of the 

 climate of Stewart Island. 



Of the interesting plants found in this locality, I may next men- 

 tion Utricularia monanthos, and Eleocharis sphacelata. The latter grew 

 in two or three deep pools in peaty soil, and specimens were pro- 

 cured with considerable difiiculty. It is singular that this species, 

 which ranges from the extreme north of New Zealand to Stewart Island, 

 should have been found in the South Island only in one or two spots in 

 Westland and at Bluff Island, a locality at one time held to be very doubtful. 

 Utricularia monanthos grows almost exclusively in pools, at the time of om* 

 visit for the most part dried to the consistency of sticky mud. Its rhizomes 

 are abundantly provided with bladders similar to those of the European 

 species, whose structure and functions have been investigated with great 

 care and skill by Darwin. (See his " Insectivorous Plants.") This 

 eminent naturalist was led to the conclusion that the bladders serve as 

 traps for minute aquatic animals such as the Entomostraca, whose protoplasm 

 is in some obscure manner made available for the nourishment of the plant. 

 Mr. Thomson has examined roughly the structm-e and contents of the 

 bladders attached to specimens gathered by us, and he informs me that re- 

 mains of Entomostracans and other minute aquatic animals were present in 

 all, sometimes in considerable quantity. Two other insectivorous plants were 

 common here, viz., Drosera hinata and D. rotundifolia. Insects are so 

 frequently caught in the glandular hairs of their leaves that these herbs are 

 known among the observant Southland settlers as " fly-catchers." 



