192 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



BOOKS REVIEWED. 



" A Botanical Excursion during Midwinter to the Southern Islands of 

 New Zealand." By L. Cockayne, Ph.D. 8vo., 109 pp. 



This paper, extracted from the "Transactions of the New Zealand 

 Institute" (vol. xxxvi.), is a valuable addition to the knowledge of 

 Antarctic plants and their conditions of growth. Its need and scope are 

 described by the author thus : " Up to the time of my visit all the botanical 

 observations in the Southern Islands had been made in spring or summer. 

 It was therefore with very great pleasure that I joined the 1 Hinemoa ' at 

 Lyttelton in the middle of June 1903 for the purpose of making a winter 

 botanical excursion to the islands, the winter aspect of the vegetation as 

 a whole being undescribed, and, so far as the endemic plants were con- 

 cerned, unknown." 



Dr. Cockayne visited the Auckland, Antipodes, and Bounty Islands, 

 and Campbell Island, but unfavourable weather prevented landing on the 

 Snares. He describes the climatic conditions of those islands visited as 

 being very similar, and consisting of cloudy skies, frequent showers, a 

 mild winter and cool summer temperature, and frequent and violent winds 

 accompanied by rain, hail, or sleet. It appears that these winds are more 

 violent on Campbell Island, and arborescent growth is thereby reduced, 

 and the forest formations of Auckland, composed of Metrosideros lucida 

 and Dracophyllum longifolium, or Olearia Lyallii, are replaced by a scrub 

 of Dracophyllum longifolium and D.' sp., Coprosma cuneata, C. ciliata, 

 C. parviflora, and Suttonia divaricata, closely allied to that of the sub- 

 alpine region of Auckland. On Antipodes the scrub almost reaches the 

 vanishing point, and on Macquarie Island is altogether wanting. These 

 islands thus " afford an instructive example of how arborescent plant 

 formations even in a rain-forest climate may be inhibited by frequent and 

 violent winds and their place taken by meadow growths, which, notwith- 

 standing the wind, are so stimulated by the moisture as to be of very 

 great luxuriance." 



Each of the islands visited is described separately, as also its different 

 plant formations. 



Thus in the Auckland Islands we have (1) Sand-dunes ; (2) Coastal 

 rocks ; (3) forest formations — (a) Rata forest, (b) Olearia Lyallii forest ; 

 (4) lowland tussock ; (5) Pleurophyllum meadow ; (6) subalpine meadow ; 

 (7) subalpine scrub. And in each of these the nature of the soil is 

 described, and the more important plants found in each formation are 

 enumerated, and finally detailed descriptions with exact measurements 

 are given of those endemic, or of special interest in their winter state. 



The view within the Rata forest must be very remarkable. The trunks 

 of the Metrosideros trees being frequently prostrate from their bases for 

 more than half their length, gnarled find twisted naked branches are given 

 off at all angles, and so twisted as to make a bewildering network ; the 

 ultimate branches are erect, and form with the foliage a dense flattened 



