1919.] 
New Zealand Institute Science Congress. 
257 
The Vegetation of Banks Peninsula, with a List of Species (Flowering- 
plants and Ferns), by R. M. Laing. 
(This paper will appear in the Transactions.) 
Press Notice ( Lyttelton Times). 
Mr. Laing said that as the peninsula was a well-defined and isolated area it was 
surprising that it had not received more attention from botanists. It tended to the 
insular in regard to climate, with comparatively small temperature-range, and a rain¬ 
fall of 25 in. at the Rhodes Convalescent Home, 30 in. at Pigeon Bay, and 45 in. at 
Akaroa, the higher rainfall at Akaroa being due to the south-east wind. 
The distribution of the original plant covering was controlled chiefly by the 
character of the winds and the quality of the rainfall. Very little, however, was now 
left of the indigenous vegetation, except on the cliff-faces. It had undergone and was 
still undergoing many changes. Originally about half the peninsula was forested ; 
now there was nowhere a stand of 300 acres of virgin forest. Cultivation, tussock-fires, 
bush-fires, sheep, cattle, rabbits, and hares had destroyed the primitive plant forma¬ 
tions and reduced the number of species. 
The chief plant societies on the peninsula were the salt marsh, the salt meadow, 
the coastal rocks, the sand-dunes, the coastal scrub, the tussock-grasslands, the inland 
cliff and rock, the forest, the scrub and heath, the subalpine scrub, and the subaipine 
grasslands. Of those, the tussock-grasslands, the forest, the subalpine associations, 
and the inland rock were the most interesting, and were considered most fully. The 
tussock areas were originally found only where the hills were directly exposed to the 
action of the drying north-west winds, or where they were sheltered from the moist 
easterlies but met the full strength of the cold south-wester. Hence the belt of tus¬ 
socks between Lyttelton North Head and Birdling’s Flat, and again between Birdling’s 
Flat and Timutimu (Akaroa) Heads. The rest of the peninsula was almost entirely 
forested. The chief timber-trees in this forest were the totara and the black-pine, 
though there had been a considerable amount of white-pine, and one or two stands of 
rimu, a species now extinct here. In addition there had been on the upper limits of the 
forest, above 2,000 ft., belts of mountain-totara ( Podocarpus Hallii) and New Zealand 
cedar ( Libocedrus ). Many trees abundant elsewhere were absent, particularly the rata, 
the kamahi ( Weinmannia ), and the celery-pine (Phylloclaclus). It was thus a taxad 
(podocarp) forest. Next to the pines the largest tree was the broadleaf ( Griselinia ). 
In the warmer northerly and easterly valleys were to be found a number of northern 
species at their southernmost limit, particularly the karaka and the nikau, and 
generally the forest of the outer bays was that of a warmer and moister region than 
that of the landward area. 
The rock-vegetation was well developed and highly characteristic, and there was 
a unique association marked by species endemic to the peninsula— Veronica Lavaudiana 
and Senecio saxifragoides. Above 1’,500 ft. a distinct scrub vegetation began to appear, 
a grass-tree (Dracophyllum) and Gaultheria antipoda (the snowberry) being the leading 
species. 
Above 2,500 ft., in the centre of the peninsula, were the subalpine grasslands, 
characterized by species of Ourisia , Euphrasia, Drapetes, Forstera, and Oreomyrrhis. 
It was difficult to account for the presence of that subalpine element. 
There were certain species which occurred nowhere else than in the peninsula 
area—a mountain-daisy ( Celmisia) near Akaroa, Lavaud’s Veronica on the rocks at 
1,000 ft. and upwards, Senecio saxifragoides on the Lyttelton Hills, and Haast’s Cotula. 
It was one of the remarkable features of the New Zealand flora that any isolated area 
usually carried one or more endemic species, and the peninsula was no exception to 
the rule. 
Another remarkable character of the area was that no fewer than seventeen 
species found there their southernmost limit. In addition to the karaka and nikau, 
already mentioned, the most notable were the pigeon-berry, titoki, and broad-leaved 
cabbage-tree ( Cordyline indivisa ), and the true pepper ( Macropiper excelsum). 
A summary of the evidence showed that the area was an outlier of Cockayne’s 
North-eastern Botanical District. It was more closely related, therefore, to the Kai- 
koura foothills than to any other. The subalpine area, however, was related to the hills 
north of the city, particularly Mounts Grey and Karetu. 
The paper concluded with a careful list of the species of the district, to the number 
of about four hundred. These included seventy-three species of ferns and club-mosses, 
seven pines, three beeches, and a few monocotyledons. The great bulk, however, 
20—Science 
