Petrie. — On the Flora of Steivart Island. 3St 



think I am justified in saying so much about the direction from which the 

 sand-hills at the Ocean Beach, Dunedin, encroached on the former channel 

 connecting Otago Harbour and the ocean, from the well-known accumula- 

 tion of sand from the south-east between Black Head and Green Island, 

 and on Sawyer's Head between Tomahawk and the Ocean Beach, while 

 there are no corresponding accumulations at the eastern or south-eastern 

 end of these beaches. 



On the Neck we found a very handsome species of Olearia (angustifolia) 

 growing abundantly near the beach. It is a species so far as is at present 

 known peculiar to Stewart Island, and was met with also at Port Pegasus. 

 Side-by-side with it grew Olearia colensoi, which attains to the dimensions of 

 a tree, and has a stem often as much as a foot in diameter. It is a species 

 that has a very wide range, and in Stewart Island ascends from sea-level, 

 where it attams its maximum size, to 1,500 feet at Port Pegasus. Elsewhere 

 in New Zealand it is an alpine plant. 



From Paterson's Inlet we made our way to Port Pegasus. The country 

 here has every appearance of recent glaciation, and the rounded outlines of 

 the hills recall vividly the roches moutonnees so well marked to the south 

 andwest of Lake Wanaka. The district around this harbour is composed 

 entirely of a granite-like rock composed of large crystalline masses of albite, 

 felspar, quartz, and mica. 



The harbour is very picturesque, and breaks up into several branches, 

 one of which penetrates to within a few miles of the west coast. To the 

 west are two very striking conical hills, known as the Frazer Peaks, the 

 larger of which has a very elegant and regular outline. Both are composed 

 of the granite so plentiful in the district, and they glitter in the sunshine 

 as if covered with a thin coating of snow. We were not favoured with good 

 weather during this part of our cruise, and were consequently prevented 

 from examining the district so fully as we had hoped to do. For two days 

 the weather was so stormy that we could dredge only in the most sheltered 

 parts of the anchorage, and for the most part with very meagre results. 

 In the bush, which surrounds the port on all sides, we found a species of 

 Coprosma, apparently new but allied to C. colensoi, and also in great abun- 

 dance Gahnia procera. The tidal flats at the head of the various branches 

 of the harbour are covered with Zostera nana. At the lower levels Actinotus 

 (Hemiphues) novcB-zealanclice was abundant, and also Astelia linearis, else- 

 where in New Zealand an alpine plant. At the intermediate levels Drosera 

 stenopetala and Senecio lyalli were met with. The latter is very common in 

 this part of the island, but we did not see it anywhere around Paterson's 

 Inlet. The specimens were, however, small and poorly grown as compared 

 with those to be met with on the mountains of the interior of Otago. The 



