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stituents. In other places there are merely mosses and lichens. Between the lava-blocks shelter is also provided, and there occur, e.g., Dracophyllum recurvum, Xothopanax Colentoi, Pimelea buxifolia, Coproetna cuneata, Gaultheria antipoda. There are many blocks with little or no vegetation between them. Of especial importance here is the white xerophytic moss Racromitrium lanuginosum as a Boil-former. Its outer surface only is alive for an inch or so, and below for a depth of half a foot and more it changes rapidly into peaty humus, which collects the rockfragments and sand, and holds much water. The moss itself forme round cushions 2 ft. or more ;iiioss. The earliest plants of this lava arc Leptospermum scoparium and Epacris alpina. The later shrubs '.;/.. Dracophyllum Urvilleanum var. montanum and Nothopanax Colentoi —arise in the hollows or crevices between the lava-blocks, where soil, made in the first place by the moss, has collected. Also the lava weathers into small pieces, which ale easily occupied by plants, these in their turn further causing disintegration. Quite common on these rocks, too, is the wellknown sweet-scented alga (Trentepohlia tp.), which paints them a vivid red. Special Ecology. Great length of root and closeness to the ground are the chief adaptation-features <>f the typical desert-plants. The gentian has leaves of a dark brown, but what the significance of this colour is I cannot say. Ligutticum aromaticum has a specially thick and long root, l.ir.uhi Colentoi is also of a dark colour, and forms dense and small cushions much like its ally /.. pumila of the eastern and driest Southern Alps. The close cushion habit, combined with densely tomatose small leaves, is shown by Raoulia auttralit, Gaultheria antipoda has very coriaceous thick leaves, and oreeping underground stems. With three exceptions the plants are not special di-brit-pl&nta elsewhere, but here the peculiar conditions have found them suitable. On the contrary, Celmisia xpectabilis is frequently a plant of very dry stations in the South Island, growing, e.g., on shingleslips, yet here, abundant as it is, it avoids the extreme desert. • (/.) The Grass-steppe. (1.) General Remarks. The graes-eteppe is, next to desert, the most widely spread plant formation of the volcanic region. Look where you will at an altitude of 3,000ft. to 4,000ft. and a fairly even surface of waving brown grass, which when in flower looks rather like a field of oats, meets the eye. On the west of the volcanic ranges stretches a flat (in appearance) plain for several miles, bounded by a dark forest -in. iss. and on the east, passing along the Waiouru-Tokaanu Road, for hours one sees little but the tussock-clad plain. The grass-steppe is important also for economic reasons, being the sole pasture of the higher levels. For such a purpose it is pot of much moment. Danthonia Rutmlii is a poor fodderplant, and, as will be seen, shrubs and certain herbaceous plants not relished by stock, rather than grasses, occupy the spaces between the tussocks. Nor does the customary burning do any good, but the contrary rather, by destroying the few good grasses present, and encouraging the useless "members of the formation. On the other hand, the soil at S,OOO ft. is able to support whiteclover, cocksfoot, and certain other European fodder plants, and the land is thus capable of h certain amount of improvement from the farmer's point of view. But with increatt of altitude the productiveness of the hunt decreases, while tin- power of tin indigenous plants to maintain their own against more useful introduced plants increases, so that within the suggested new boundaries of the park there is no grass land of any value. (2.) Physiognomy, (be. Seen from a distance the formation looks like a uniform brown covering, and it might well be thought to lack a variety of species. Hut a closer view shows it to be broken into in places. The brown colour is owing to the dominance of the great tussocks of Danthonia Raovlii, which, although brown at a distance, are more or less orange-coloured at dose view, whence the popular name in the south of " red tussock." The tussocks, which are 2J ft. and more tall, spread out above, the ends of the leaves drooping, but they are bunched in at the base. They may be quite close to one another and touch, or be one or two yards distant, and this latter is the more common. Between them arc level spaces containing shallow depressions of bare ground, slightly raised patches of foliage, and plants here and there at the usual surface-level. Celmisia longifolia var. gracUenta, (i in. or 8 in. tall, its leaves slender and silvery, is the most common plant, and is almost everywhere. Adding distinctly to the physiognomy in many places are the dark-coloured erect bushes of Dracophyllum suoulatum, 1 ft. din. or more tall and 1 ft. 3 in. through. The branches are quite erect and dense. The leaves give the colour. They are small, dull brownish-green, and have a pale-coloured base. Quite frequent are more or leas circular mats of Coprotma depretsa, flattened to the ground, the branches spreading fan-like, the yellow-green leaves turned to the light, and so the branch-system is dorsiventral. The lateral branches are on the flanks of the main avis, quite straight, and given off at a wide angle. Here. then, is the divaricating habit put to n secondary use. Large mats or cushions, of a green colour, ami a yard or so long, of the close-growing rosettes of Celmisia spentnbilis are frequent in many places. When in bloom, their large white flower-heads, raised on the tall toineiitose stalks above the shining green foliage, give a special character to the meadow in December and early January (Photo. No. 21). Euphrasia cuneata var. tricolor, with its conspicuous and beautiful flowers, white with yellow throat, and marked with delicate purple lines, in everywhere, and a charming attraction to the meadow during January and February. In some places the glaucous-leaved and aromatic Celmisia glandulota is eommon, its large depressed mats covered in late December and early January with numerous daisy-like blossoms. The small creeping shrub Pentachondra pumila forms patches of considerable size of dark bluish-green hard leaves, the