1 62 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 



The greater portion of the island is covered with light and occa- 

 sionally open bush, which never exceeds thirty feet in height. In a 

 few places a dense scrubby growth of Veronica ettiptica, five to eight 

 feet high, requires some exertion to force one's way through, the 

 difficulty being aggravated by the penguins, which make vicious snaps 

 at the legs, while the explorer is held fast by entangled branches above. 

 Usually a belt of open land covered with tussock occurs between the 

 bush and the mai-ginof the cliff, and a few small open patches occur also 

 in the central parts of the island. In places where patches of bush have 

 been felled by sealers the ground is covered with a dense growth of 

 Veronica ettiptica intermixed with tussock. 



Approaching the island on a fine morning in January, the attention 

 is at once arrested by the peculiar grey or whitish hue of the foliage, 

 flecked here and there with green on the lower margin of the bush. 

 On landing this is found to arise from the abundance of Olearia Lyattii, 

 which is the principal tree on the island, and forms the greater portion 

 of the arboreal vegetation. When growing in level situations of an 

 open character it is a noble erect tree, with rather open spreading 

 branches ; but when growing on sloping hillsides exposed to the wind 

 it is often inclined, or with a prostrate trunk, the rootSj partly from 

 the burrowing of the petrels, being torn out ; on the soil the branches 

 rooting at their tips give rise to new trunks, which in their turn are 

 brought to the ground and repeat the process. The short trunks are 

 sometimes three feet in diameter, but the majority were from one to 

 two feet, the extreme height of the tree rarely exceeding twenty-eight 



feet. 



The mature leaves of this fine tree are excessively rigid and 

 coriaceous, with a very short, almost sheathing petiole, orbicular -ovate 

 or broadly ovate, and abruptly acuminate, from three to seven inches in 

 length, white, with appressed tomentum on both surfaces, although that 

 on the upper surface usually disappears during the first winter. The 

 flower-heads are produced in terminal racemes from three to eight 

 inches in length, and are rayless ; the rachis, peduncles, bracts, and 

 outer involucral leaves are clothed with close snow-white tomentum, 

 which forms a striking contrast with the almost black discoid heads, 

 mostly composed of perfect florets. The involucral leaves are arranged 

 in from five to eight series. 



Although this fine plant differs widely in its general appearance 

 from 0. colensoi, it is difficult to point out good distinctive characters. 

 It diverges chiefly in the more open habit, stouter branches, broader 

 leaves with the pubescence partially persistent above, and especially in 

 the involucral leaves being arranged in from five to eight series ; the 

 last character alone being of any importance. The cultivator, however, 

 will always consider it distinct. It is restricted to the Snares and to 

 the Auckland Islands. 



The patches of green amongst the white masses of the Olearia were 

 caused by another grand plant, Senecio Muelleri T. Kirk,* a noble 

 species originally described from specimens collected on Herekopere 

 Island, but the specimens in the original habitat are not nearly so 

 large as those on the Snares, where it attains the extreme height of 



* "Transactions of New Zealand Institute," vol. xv., p. 359. 



