2()4. BOTANY 
wonderful thoroughness, become adapted to its 
surroundings. 
MESOPHYTE SOCIETIES. 
Mesophyte societies form, as a rule, either grass- 
land or forest. Where the rainfall is abundant we 
find the forest, particularly where the exposure is not 
too great or the cold too intense. Where the rainfall 
L. Cockayne, Ph.D., F.R.S., photo 
Tussock grass-land of Malvern Hills, Canterbury, showing Wild Irishman 
(Discaria toumatou) in foreground. The grass is a fescue (Festuca novae- 
zealandiae). 
is less in quantity, more especially where showers 
occur at frequent intervals, we have grass land. 
The grass-lands occur chiefly in three regions, the 
Taupo steppe lying to the South and East of Ruapehu, 
the Canterbury Plains, and a large part of Central 
Otago. The absence of forest to the east of Ruapehu, 
though due doubtless in a measure to seanty rainfall, 
may to some extent also be accounted for by the 
extremely porous nature of the soil and the effect of 
recent volcanic action. That the two latter alone 
