Systematic Botany.] SUBANTARCTIC ISLANDS OF NEW ZEALAND. 391 



Ross's expedition consisted of two vessels — ^the " Erebus," commanded by Ross 

 himself, and the " Terror," under Captain Crozier. To the first-mentioned vessel, 

 as already mentioned, Sir J. D. Hooker was attached as naturalist ; whilst Dr. Lyall 

 served in a similar capacity on the " Terror." After calling at the Cape of Good 

 Hope, Kerguelen Island, and Tasmania, the expedition arrived at the Auckland 

 Islands on the 20th November, 1840, anchoring in Rendezvous Harbour (now known 

 as Port Ross), at the northern end of the island. Here the ships remained until 

 the 12th December, or twenty days in all. During this stay Hooker and Lyall were 

 actively engaged in investigating the natural history of the group. Nothing was 

 previously known of the vegetation, and the isolated situation of the group, far 

 removed from any land except the Islands of New Zealand, promised many im- 

 portant discoveries, and made its exploration a matter of peculiar interest. That 

 these anticipations were fully realised the published records of the expedition amply 

 prove ; but it may be allowable to quote a few sentences from a short account of 

 the vegetation contributed by Hooker to Ross's " Voyage to the Southern and 

 Antarctic Regions " (vol. i, p. 144) : " Possessing no mountains rising to the limits 

 of perpetual snow, and few rocks or precipices, the whole land seemed covered with 

 vegetation. A low forest skirts all the shores, succeeded by a broad belt of brush- 

 wood, above which, to the summits of the hills, extend grassy slopes. On a closer 

 inspection of the forest, it is found to be composed of a dense thicket of stag-headed 

 trees, so gnarled and stunted by the violence of the gales as to afford an excellent 

 shelter for a luxuriant undergrowth of bright-green feathery ferns and several gay- 

 flowered herbs, With much to delight the eye, and an extraordinary amount of new 

 species to occupy the mind, there is here a want of any of those trees or shrubs 

 to which the voyager has been accustomed in the north." " The woods consist en- 

 tirely of four or five species of trees, or large shrubs, which are here enumerated 

 in the order of their relative abundance." (1, Metrosideros lucida ; 2, Dracofhyllum 

 longifolium ; 3, Panax simplex ; 4, Veronica elliptica ; 5, Coprosma foetidissima.) 

 " Under the shade of these, about fifteen different ferns grow in great abundance, 

 the most remarkable of which is a species of Aspidium {A. venustum, of the French 

 South Polar Voyage), with short trunks, 2-3 ft. high, crowned with a tuft of spread- 

 ing feathery fronds, each 3-6 ft. long : this is one of the most graceful and ornamental 

 productions of the group. The Aralia polaris, Homb. & Jacq., and the Pleurophyllum 

 criniferum are two highly remarkable plants, very common near the sea : the former 

 is allied to the ivy, but has clusters of green waxy flowers as large as a child's head ; 

 and its round and wrinkled leaves, of the darkest green, measure a foot and a half 

 across. They form the favourite food of the hogs, which run wild on these islands." 

 "It is upon the hills, however, that the more beautiful plants abound ; amongst 

 which the most striking is a liliaceous one, allied to Anthericum {Chrysobactron Rossii), 

 whose conspicuous racemes of golden flowers are often a span long, and many speci- 

 mens have three or four such spikes. The Pleurophyllum speciosum resembles a large 

 Aster, bearing numerous purple flowers, the size of a large marigold. The Celmisia 

 vernicosa has linear glossy leaves, spread out on the ground like the spokes of a wheel, 

 and pure-white flowers, with a purple eye, as large as those of the last-named plant. 

 Finally, the Veronica Benthami may be mentioned ; it is of shrubby growth, with 

 spikes of flowers of a deep ultramarine blue. Amongst those of humbler stature, 

 several European genera occur, as species of Cardamine, Ranunculus, Plantago, 



