178 Ussays. 



respect to vertical or altitudinal range ttere are, exclusive of those pre- 

 sented by alpine plants, peculiarities whicli it is difficult to account for. 

 For example, we find on the Canterbury Plains, so high as the latitude of 

 Cbristeliurcli, large, well-developed specimens of the narroAV-leaved variety 

 of Acijjhylla squarrosa, a plant only found at truly sub-alpine elevations in 

 the Nelson district ; whilst on the other hand Discaria aiistralis is common, 

 as a low, straggling shrub, to the dxy, low grounds of both districts, pre- 

 senting perfect similarity in each, and yet attaining in sub-alpine regions, 

 where it is mixed with the same grasses and the same variety of Acipliylla, 

 the dimensions of a small tree. Except in this and analogous cases, and in 

 the presence of some plant in the one district not found in the other, there 

 is little difference in their respective herbaceous vegetation at the lower 

 levels. 



In the alpine vegetation, above the forest line, however, much greater 

 differences are found, but I may here remark that I have not (nor, so far as 

 I am aware, has any other explorei') ascended our mountain ranges beyond 

 7,000 to 7,500 feet. My observations, therefore, must be deemed to apply 

 to the alpine vegetation below these altitudes. 



In our mountains, too, we find the same peculiarities in distribution 

 which characterize the alpine vegetation of other mountains of great eleva- 

 tion. Some plants extend over the whole system, others again have a more 

 limited longitudinal range, and still others are confined to single localities. 

 As examples of the first, in the districts under consideration, I may mention 

 species of Gaidtlieria, Dracopkyllum, Veronica, Cehnisia, Banunculus, 

 Anisotome, Senecio, Eitryhia, and others ; of the second class, other species 

 of each of these genera, and more particularly Manimculus lyallii, found by 

 me on the Canterbury side of the Hurunui, and common throughout the 

 alpine and sub-alpine districts of that province, but not found further 

 north ; and of the third class, a beautiful Banuncidios, also found by me, 

 associated with B. lyallii, on the Canterbury side of the Hurunui, and never 

 yet found elsewhere, and a handsome Cehnisia, hitherto only found on a 

 spur of the range bounding the Upper Waiau Yalley. 



Seeing, then, the apparently arbitrary distribution of merely alpine 

 plants, it is useless to attempt any comparison of that section of the floras of 

 the two districts. I may, however, remark that whilst in the southern parts 

 of the Kelson district a luxuriant forest vegetation is often found to the 

 height of 5,000 feet, succeeded by dense but large-growing scrub for several 

 hundred feet more ; on the other hand, in the mountains of the Canterbury 

 district, a stunted and strictly alpine vegetation almost always occurs 

 when we reach an altitude exceeding 4,200 feet. 



In summing up I may say that whilst neither of the two districts pos- 



