Systematic Botany.] SUBANTARCTIC ISLANDS OF NEW ZEALAND. 395 



of the vegetation. A list of the plants collected will be found in his " Notes on a 

 Visit to Macquarie Island " (Trans. N.Z. Inst., xxvii, 559). It includes eleven 

 phanerogams additional to those recorded by Professor Scott, thus bringing up the 

 total flora to twenty-eight species. At first sight, this seems a small number for so 

 large an island ; but it is really only in keeping with what is known of the character 

 of the vegetation in high southern latitudes. Kerguelen Island, which is not only 

 much larger, but is 5° further north than Macquarie Island, has a flora of only thirty 

 species. Further, South Georgia, which is in almost the same latitude as Macquarie 

 Island, has so far only yielded eighteen phanerogams and ferns. 



About the end of 1883 the late Mr. John Buchanan visited Campbell Island in 

 the Government s.s. " Stella," with the view of procuring living plants for various 

 public gardens in New Zealand, and of further investigating the flora of the island. 

 His paper on "Campbell Island and its Flora" (Trans. N.Z. Inst., xvi, 398), although 

 short, contains several observations of value. The most important result of his 

 visit was the proof which he obtained of the existence of a third species of Pleuro- 

 phyllum {P. Hookeri, Buch.), which had been confounded with P. criniferum by all 

 previous collectors. 



In 1887 the numerous disastrous shipwrecks which had occurred on the Auckland 

 Islands, and the hardships experienced by the castaways, induced the New Zealand 

 Government to provide depots of provisions, &c., and to arrange that a Government 

 steamer should regularly visit the islands at least twice every year. Since the esta- 

 blishment of this means of communication it has been possible for naturalists and 

 others to reach the islands with much greater comfort and certainty. The most 

 noteworthy visit made in this manner is undoubtedly that of Mr. Kirk in 1890. He 

 was able to botanize not only on the Auckland and Campbell Islands, but also on 

 the Snares and Antipodes Island, the vegetation of which was previously altogether 

 unknown. The results of his journey were embodied in a memoir contributed to the 

 Report of the Australasian Association for 1891, portions of which were also separately 

 published in the " Transactions of the New Zealand Institute " and the " Journal 

 of Botany," and which constituted the most important contribution made to the 

 botany of the southern islands since Hooker's visit exactly fifty years before. The 

 additional information recorded may be briefly summarised as follows : First, the 

 addition of at least twelve species to the known flora of the Auckland and Campbell 

 Islands, and the collection of many fresh facts bearing on the vegetation generally. 

 Second, the exploration of the Snares, which not only gave us a knowledge of the 

 general character of the vegetation, and placed upon record a list of twenty-three 

 indigenous phanerogams and ferns, but which brought to light some totally unex- 

 pected facts of geographical distribution, such as the occurrence of Olearia Lyallii 

 and Stilbocarpa Lyallii var. robusta, together with the discovery of the endemic 

 Ligusticum acutifolium. Third, a similar exploration of Antipodes Island, which 

 led to a knowledge of the chief features of its florula, and to the recognition of the 

 important fact that fifty-four species of phanerogams and ferns, two of them endemic, 

 are found on this remote outlier of New Zealand. 



At the same time as Kirk, Mr. F. R. Chapman (now Mr. Justice Chapman) visited 

 the islands, and made collections of some size, both of living and dried plants. His 

 paper, entitled " The Outlying Islands South of New Zealand " (Trans. N.Z. Inst., 

 xxiii, 491), is replete with interesting matter relating to the flora and fauna, and 

 should be read by all persons interested in the subject. Among other gentlemen 



