454 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 
GENERAL NOTES. 
—_— ——— 
OccURRENCE OF Zoysia pungens (Willd.) In CenTRAL OTAGO,— 
On a recent tour in the interior of Otago, I came across great masses of 
this grass in the following ‘ocalities:—Bendigo, Lowburn, Cromwell 
Flat, and Alexandra Flat. Zoysia there forms extensive patches of 
very close sward. It grows mainly on the sandy flats near the river 
Clutha, but extends also some distance up the sides of the Dunstan 
Mountain range. At Lowburn, just beyond the punt, there is a patch 
quite an acre in area, but elsewhere the masses rarely exceed in 
diameter ten or twelve yards. This season it has borne fruit abun- 
dantly, but I have nowhere seen more than one spikelet on a culm, and 
I examined many hundred specimens to satisfy myself on this point. 
It is evidently eaten by sheep but not greedily. The foliage is in places 
more lax and flaccid than in any of those northerly forms with which 
Tam acquainted. It is recorded as occurring in Canterbury by Mr. 
Armstrong, but I do not know whether it was found near the coast or 
inland. It is usually found in the neighbourhood of the sea, but the 
localities above given show that in suitable conditions it will thrive in 
what is practically a continental situation. Other plants of a littoral 
character found in the same localities are Salsola australis (Br.) and 
Chenopodium pusillum (Hook. f.) I think it probable that these 
littoral plants have survived in this region of New Zealand since a sea 
of middle Tertiary age filled up the Manuherikia, Ida, and Maniototo 
valleys. Undoubtedly the areas where they now grow have been 
submerged since then, but during this submergence very cold conditions. 
must have prevailed, and these may have killed them off in all but a 
few localities. I have not observed Salsola australis. (Br.) or Zoysia 
pungens (Willd.) west of the Dunstan Mountains, nor Chenopodium 
pusillum (Hook. f.) west of Ida Valley. So far as existing knowledge 
of their distribution goes all these littoral plants are confined to the 
Clutha river basin, and do not extend into the adjoining basin of the 
upper Taieri. But this conclusion may be modified by a better 
knowledge of their range.—D. PETRIE. 
Tue Rarip Increase or Lrechtites prenanthoides, D.C.—Any 
one interested in the sudden spread ot indigenous and introduced plants 
must have noticed many instances of the extraordinarily rapid increase 
of Lrechtites prenanthoides, D.C. In the forests of Otago this plant 
springs up everywhere in clearings and by the sides of tracks—indeed 
wherever the surface of the ground has been disturbed. In explanation — 
of this peculiarity two theories might be put forward; one that the 
seeds have long lain dormant in the ground, and have germinated as 
soon as fit conditions have arisen, the other that the seeds are spread 
abroad by the wind and finding suitable conditions for growth in 
clearings naturally spring up rapidly and thrive. There can be little 
difficulty in choosing between these two hypotheses for the seed is 
admirably adapted to the latter mode of dispersion, being very light 
and easily buoyed up by the pappus to which it is rather firmly 
attached, much more firmly than is the seed of the common thistle to 
