414 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 
them, and are steadily becoming more and more rare on the 
Mount Pisa Range. 
The effects of their ravages on the native grasses are not so 
obvious as in the cases mentioned, as grasses survive the eating 
down of their foliage so much better than the plants above cited. 
A general thinning of all the more tender kinds is certainly 
taking place, and less useful and less nutritious plants are in 
consequence spreading and gaining predominance. In the case 
of a matted form of what Mr. Buchanan considers to be Poa 
exigua, I have observed that it has been all but exterminated in 
the localities on Mount Pisa, where I first found it in consider- 
able abundance. No doubt sheep as well as rabbits have helped 
to eat it down, so that its disappearance cannot be ascribed to 
their exclusive agency. Much the same is doubtless happening 
with other grasses, of which I can specify in particular Poa 
colensot, and Danthonia nuda. The indirect effects of the close 
cropping of rabbits and sheep combined are almost as striking 
and important as the immediate ones. It is leading to a desic- 
cation of large areas that unfits them for the growth of their ori- 
ginal inhabitants. I have especially remarked the decline of 
Raoulia hectort on the Mount Pisa Range from this cause. 
The foregoing remarks may suffice to show that the preva- 
lence of the rabbit pest is calculated to produce most important 
effects on the collection of plants growing in the districts they 
infest. As years pass by, several highly characteristic plants 
will probably be exterminated from large areas in which they 
flourished and were likely to flourish but for their appearance on 
the scene. The writer’s observations have been made casually 
on journeys undertaken in connection with his calling. Though 
they are not complete, and do not apply to a large area, they 
appear to indicate causes that are acting over a wide area, that 
are acting, too, continuously, and must result in highly impor- 
tant and interesting changes in the distribution and prevalence 
of native and introduced plants. It is to be hoped that some 
persons who have good opportunities will take the subject in 
hand and make more complete andextensive observations, If this 
imperfect paper should lead to such a result, it will have answered 
one of the writer's chief aims in directing attention to the subject, 
ON SOME NEW ZEALAND CARICES. 
For the convenience of such of our readers as are not ac- 
quainted with Dr. Berggren’s contributions to our knowledge of 
the New Zealand Flora, we give here a translation of the species of 
Carex described by him. Being communicated to a Swedish 
Society of Naturalists, his contributions are not so widely known 
as they deserve to be. On some future occasions we shall give 
the remaining parts of his paper. The value of the original 
gS EE ee ey eee eee 
