6 



frequent on the shores of extratropical Australia and the Chatham- 

 Islands, has also been recently discovered by Mr. Travers, sen., at 

 Lyttleton-Harbour, of New Zealand, where apparently it produces 

 its red baccate fruit more readily than elsewhere. 



Dr. Dieffenbach alludes to the occurrence of two plants in the 

 Chatham-Islands not otherwise as such on record, namely a Typha 

 and Cyathea meduUaris, which latter will probably be found identical 

 with the Cyathea Cunninghami of this work. 



The berry-bearing supposed pine, mentioned by Dr. Dieffenbach 

 as a Taxus, is likely to be identified with Cyathodes acerosa. 



Some of the notes of Mr. Travers's journal, as bearing directly on 

 the vegetation of these islands, need here an abridged record. 



Not only the Maori-huts, but also the dwellings of the Europeans 

 are built of posts of fern-trees, lashed together with Supplejack 

 (Rhipogonum scandens). The Toi-grass (Arundo conspicua) is em- 

 ployed for thatching. The aboriginal inhabitants, before their sub- 

 jugation by the New Zealand natives, chiefly resorted to fern-roots 

 as vegetable food prepared in the manner customary in New Zealand. 

 They formed rafts of the flowerstalks of Phormium tenax, spliced with 

 Supplejack, the generality of the timber not being sufficiently large 

 for constructing canoes. It is therefore the author's intention to aid 

 in introducing into the islands some of the Australian timber-trees 

 of the most vigorous growth. The species of Potamogeton and other 

 water-weeds, common in lakes of New Zealand and Australia, were 

 not observed 'by Mr. Travers, who indeed in all his excursions noticed 

 only one floating water-plant, to which however he could not obtain 

 access. The peat in some localities was found to extend to a depth 

 of fifty feet ; in several parts of the island this peat has been on fire 

 for years, burning at a considerable depth below the surface, which, 

 when sufficiently undermined, caves in and is consumed. Mr. Travers 

 saw ashes of these fires arising from a depth of thirty feet. At one 

 place he remarked in the burning peat six or seven feet below the 

 surface the trunks of trees, evidently far exceeding in size any now 

 growing on the islands. Large numbers of indigenous herbaceous 

 plants have probably been destroyed, partly by burning of the surface- 

 ground and partly by depastured animals roaming over it. 



The author feels, that it devolves on him to vindicate the prin- 

 ciples, by which he was guided in the limitation of some of the 



