Systematic Botany.] SUBANTARCTIC ISLANDS OF NEW ZEALAND. 405 



The Snares : Kirk ! Auckland and Campbell Islands : Common on the ground 

 and on wet rocks near the sea ; Hooker, Kirk ! Cockayne, Tennant ! Laing ! Anti- 

 podes Island : Wet rocks ; Kirk, Cockayne. Macquarie Island : A. Hamilton. 

 (Fuegia ; Falkland Islands ; Kerguelen Island ; Marion Island ; Heard Island ; 

 South Georgia.) 



Hooker remarks (Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc, 168, p. 20) that two forms of this species 

 are found in Kerguelen Island and elsewhere — one aquatic, with long stems and pro- 

 portionally large spathulate leaves ; the other smaller, terrestrial, suberect, with 

 obovate or oblong leaves. To this latter form he applies the name of var. terrestris 

 in the " Flora Antarctica." Specimens of the larger form collected by Kirk on the 

 Snares and on the Auckland Islands bear abundance of ripe fruit, which has the 

 rounded angles characteristic of the species. The smaller state I have seen only in 

 young flower. 



Myrtaceae. 

 Metrosideros lucida, A. Rich. 



Melaleuca lucida, Forst., Prodr., n. 216 (1786). Metrosideros lucida, A. 

 Rich, Fl. Nov. Zel., 333 (1832) ; Hook, f., Fl. Antarct., i, 12 (1844). 

 Agalmanthus umhellatus, Homb. & Jacq., Voy. Astrol. et Zel., 78, t. 1 

 (1845). 



Auckland Islands : Abundant from sea-level up to 500 ft. ; Hooker and all 

 subsequent collectors. Campbell Island : Extremely rare ; Kirk. (New Zealand, 

 from Whangarei and the Great Barrier Island southwards.) 



The most abundant tree on the Auckland Islands, skirting almost the whole 

 of the eastern shore with a broad belt of forest. According to Hooker, it reaches a 

 height of from 20 ft. to 40 ft., with a trunk 2-3 ft. in diameter. It is seldom erect ; 

 usually the trunks are inclined or almost prostrate at the base, giving off many 

 naked more or less gnarled and distorted branches. Generally speaking, the branch- 

 lets of the Auckland Islands plant are stouter and the leaves more coriaceous 

 than is the case with specimens from the mainland of New Zealand. There is also 

 a considerable range of variation in the size and shape of the leaves. I have quoted 

 the Campbell Island locality on the authority of Mr. Kirk, who states that " it is 

 extremely rare and of very low stature." It does not seem to have been observed 

 by any subsequent botanist. Mr. Laing has expressly informed me that he searched 

 for it in vain. 



Sir Joseph Hooker was the first to draw attention to the high latitudes reached 

 by Myrtaceous plants in the Southern Hemisphere. In Auckland Island Metro- 

 sideros lucida attains the latitude of 52° S., while in South America Myrteola num- 

 mularia stretches through Fuegia almost as far south as Cape Horn (S. lat. 56°), 

 and is also found in the Falkland Islands. The monotypic genus Tepualia, 

 first discovered in southern Chili, and so closely allied to Metrosideros as to be 

 included in that genus by Hooker (Fl. Antarct., ii, 275), is now known to extend 

 along the south-western coast of South America as far south as Desolation Island 

 (S. lat. 53°), where it was collected by Dusen, the botanist of the Swedish Magellanic 

 Expedition. 



