528 
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF BOTANY 
[Vol. io. 
Several species of Celmisia (Compositae) are abundant, and some have 
very handsome daisy-like flowers, and other Compositae, Senecio and 
Chrysobactron, contribute to the floral display; but next to the Ranunculus 
the most attractive flower was Ourisia macrocar pa, a low-growing plant 
allied to Mimulus, with abundant white flowers. Ourisia is a genus which 
New Zealand and Tasmania share with sub-antarctic South America. 
The composite genus Raoulia, best known by the curious sub-alpine 
“vegetable sheep,” R. eximia, has a number of common and widespread 
species, forming dense cushions on rocks and in the dried-up beds of streams, 
and in similar localities. 
Another peculiar and abundant sub-alpine plant is Aciphylla Colensoi , 
an umbellifer, but with its stiff, dagger-like leaves looking much more like 
a dwarf Yucca. 
The coach drive through the Otira Gorge, descending to the west from 
Arthur’s Pass, is one to be long remembered. The lofty walls of this mag¬ 
nificent canyon are extremely steep, and clothed from crest to base with a 
dense jungle of evergreen trees and shrubs. The great luxuriance of the 
vegetation testifies to the heavy precipitation, and the New Zealand rain¬ 
forest reaches its culmination in the excessively wet Westland province. 
The increasing moisture of the western slope is evidenced as one de¬ 
scends by the greater profusion of ferns, liverworts, and other herbaceous 
moisture-loving plants like violets, Hydrocotyle, Nertera, and similar 
things. Particularly interesting was an abundance of Gunner a albocarpa, a 
genus especially developed in New Zealand. The roadside banks were 
richly clothed with these and many other interesting plants. As we de¬ 
scended, tree-ferns, absent from the higher elevations, appeared and be¬ 
came more abundant as the coast was approached. 
Several days were spent on the west coast, which proved most inter¬ 
esting. In this region one can still see untouched forest of the most luxuriant 
character. In these rain-forests ferns and liverworts abound, and the latter 
attain a size and luxuriance that I have never seen equaled, even in the 
tropics. 
The Westland rain-forest is dominated by two genera of Taxads, Podo- 
carpus and Dacrydium, and Cockayne 4 designates this type of rain-forest 
“Taxad forest. ” 
Where the land is low and swampy, Podocarpus dacrydioides forms 
almost pure stands. It is known locally as “white pine, ” and, as its timber 
is valuable, the forests are being rapidly cut down. These forests are very 
characteristic in appearance. The trees grow close together, and their 
very tall, rather slender trunks are bare for most of their height, with 
relatively small crowns of foliage. There is comparatively little under¬ 
growth, and lianas and epiphytes are much less developed than in the 
typical rain-forest, so that the crowded bare, mast-like trunks present a 
4 Vegetation of New Zealand, p. 133. 
