C—B.

bearing fairly dense masses of soft, flaccid, moderately thin, somewhat dark-green, broadly lanceolate leave?, but which are rendered paler by numerous oil-glands dotted over their surface. Flowers small, 2or 3 together in leaf-axils, white dotted with purple. Fruits reddish-purple, succulent. The porokaiwhiri (Hedycarya arborea) is a small tree with a moderately stout trunk covered with pale-grey, rather furrowed and cracksd, fairly thick bark, very dark-green, shining, oblong to obovate medium-sized leaves with dark-brown midrib, fairly large, pale yellowish-green, dioecious, sweet-scented flowers in short racemes, and rather large bright-red drupes. The nikau palm (Rhopalostylis sapida) has a straight, smooth, greenish, rather slender trunk, bearing a terminal crown of large pinnate leaves with very stout midribs. The flowers are monoecious, and occur at the base of the leaves, the inflorescence being enclosed in two deeply concave spaths. The drupes are rather large, and of a bright-red colour. The northern rata (Metrosideros robusta) is a tall tree with a very thick and irregular trunk, often composed of aereal roots, and covered with a brownish, flaky bark. The branches are spreading and frequently crooked, forming finally a by-no-means-dense head of foliage, the final branchlets being congregated into small, rather distant masses of close leaves. The leaves are more or less lanceolate, about If in. long, and coriaceous. The flowers are of a bright but rather dark scarlet, and produced in the greatest profusion, rendering this tree a wonderfully striking and dazzling object when in full bloom. The kiekie (Freycinetia banksii) is a stout woody climbing plant, with rather rigid terete stems clinging by numerous thick white adventitious roots, and giving off great numbers of long, rather narrow, somewhat swordlike, flat, flexible, stout and rather thick, dark-green leaves which arch out laterally. Flowers dioecious, in fascicled spadices at the apices of the branches. Fruit an oblong mass of fleshy drupes. Uncinia australis is a grass-like plant forming small tussocks of dark-green, arching, long, flat leaves, and producing tall flower-stalks of brown utricles provided with long barbed bristles. Lomaria is described at some length further on. Besides the above, many other, plants play a part in the physiognomy of the forest, but the briefest mention only can be made of some of them. There are, for instance, the kaikomako (Pennantia corymbose), especially common near the outskirts of the forest, with its dimorphic habit—a xerophytic smallleaved shrub below, and a tree with thin, flaccid, shining-green leaves above, bearing handsome panicles of white flowers; the pukapuka (Brachyglottis repanda), with very large, rather dull-coloured, thin and membranous leaves of oblong type, their undersurface covered with close white tomentum; the wharangi (Melicope ternata), with vivid, bright pale-green, shining ternate leaves, and small greenish more or less unisexual flowers; the mapau {Rapanea urvillei), with its undulating, subcoriaceous, rather pale yellowish-green leaves and reddish twigs; the tarata (Pittosporum eugenioides), with its extremely glossy, bright-green, thin, medium-sized leaves, and fairly conspicuous' umbels of sweetscented, more or less dioecious, yellowish flowers; the horoeka (Pseudopanax crassifolium), with its straight naked trunk, and round compact head of stiff, coriaceous, more or less linear-oblong, darkgreen leaves; the juvenile form of this latter with slender, erect stem, and deflexed, long, narrow, coriaceous, saw-like leaves with a conspicuous yellow midrib; the horopito (Drimys axillaris), described further on; the titoki (Alectryon excelsum), with its large pinnate leaves and black seeds surrounded by a scarlet fleshy cup. Finally, there are the various climbing ratas, the tree-ferns, the smaller ferns, the filmy ferns, and in the upper forest more especially a certain amount of mosses and liverworts. (c.) The Ecological Factors. The ecological factors concerned with distribution are twofold—those which regulate the distribution of the forest as a whole, and those which decide the position of the individual members or combination of members. The climate, as already pointed out, is mild, the number of rainy days is sufficient for hygrophytic vegetation, and there is a good deal of bright sunshine even in the winter and spring months. In short, the climate, so far as rain and heat are concerned, is distinctly that which favours rain-forest. But here, as in so many places in New Zealand and the subantarctic regions,* the wind factor is preeminent, and this, as has already been shown, regulates the present distribution of the forest. As for the composition of the formation and the distribution of its members, the nature of the soil considered in its widest sense comes into play. This factor, termed by Schimper " edaphic," affects also the forest as a whole, and inhibits the presence of certain forest-plants, since the combined effect of the various edaphic factors produces drier soil conditions than are suitable for a typical New Zealand rain-forest. The ground is in many places excessively stony. At the bases of the slopes large stones lie heaped one upon another. One particular stone measured 2 ft. in height, 2 ft. 8 in. in length, and 16 in in width, while plenty in close proximity were still larger. Higher up, such stony debris becomes smaller, and slopes several chains in length and of considerable breadth occur everywhere on the lower part of the slopes. These have the physical character of true alpine shingle-slips, so that on descending by such a slope the stones move downwards, en masse, with the descender. There slopes are being constantly added to, or sre in process of building, ac stones are frequently found wedged in tightly against trees, or held in their places by them. Other parts of a hill are bare of stones, these having slipped downwards, while in other parts again big stones dot the surface everywhere. Other stony slopes are mow ancient, or have originally possessed greater stability, since below the stones much earth has

* See Schenck, H., " Vergleichende Darstellung der Subantarctischen Inseln insbesondere iiber Flora und Veeetation yon Kerguelan," p. 15 et seq.; 1905. 6

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