NEW ZEALAND PLANTS AND THEIR STORY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVII, Issue 149, 23 June 1906, Page 9

NEW ZEALAND PLANTS AND THEIR STORY.

•B ~ ] BY DE. L. COCKAYNE, Cor. F.B.S. Ed.) 1 (Copyright.) i VI. - THE MEADOWS OF THE HIGH, i; MOUNTAINS. « (Concluded.) The Otago Alpine plants diffeir considerably as to species from those of Canterbury and Westland, and still more from those of Nelson and the Xortb Island. Peculiar species are: Veronica Hectori, Gelmisia Petviel, Aciphvlla -simplex. Ranunculus Mat- ! thews'ii, etc. FinaUy. Stewart Island j and the mountains of Southland have j much in common. If a foreign botanist, conversant with the alpine plants of other regions, were ; to visit a high mountain meadow in New Zealand."he would be surprised at the prevalence of white and yellow ' flowers, and the almost entire lack of reds and blues. His eye would encounter no blue gentians, no pink primulas. He would be less amazed at seeing plant-forms very similar to those of other alpine regions, yet bearing quite different flowers to his old acquaintances, i.e., belonging to other families. This latter fact "he" would find an admirable, illustration of the phenomenon, that, similar conditions ovoke similar life-forms even in regions widely remote. As for the prevalence of white and yellow flowers, he would possibly have no suggestion to offer of any moment beyond that the white might be. adapted for fertilisiation at night-time, by moths, and that yellow is a most frequent colour amongst flowers everywhere. But if there is some monotone as to the colour of our alpine flowers, there is I none with regard to thoir form. The herbaceous plants of the European Alps usually die to the ground yearly, whereas those of New Zealand are mostly evergreen. The speargrass.es (Aciphvlla) aro of the Yucca-form. Some, arc frequently cultivated in European gardens, but others still fnore handsome are unknown there. Aciphvlla Colensoi var. conspicua derives its varietal name from the broad band of orange down the centre of each leaf-segment, which renders it an especially striking plant. Aciphvlla Monroi, growing a few inches high out of a face of rock, looks not unlike a pigmy palm. A. Dobsoni has leavps of the most intense rigidity. The eyebrights (Euphrasia) are real alpine gems Euphrasia Monroi has rather big flowers, considering the size of the plant, white with a yellow eye; E. Cockayniana is yellow; E. Cuneata grows at le-a.st a foot tall, and is a most beautiful feature of Mount Egmont and other North Island mountains. Other pretty plants of this genus are K. Cheesemannii r.ntl E. Zealandica. The eyebrights are in part parasites, living attached to the roots of grasses. This habit renders them exceedingly difficult to cultivate. To Ourisia, a genus belonging exclusively to South America, New Zealand, and Tasmania, belong perhaps the most charming of our plants. Ourisia maerophylla of the North Island, and O. maerocarpa. of the South, are the tallest of the New Zealand species, and exceedingly handsome plants. 0. Cockayniana looks rather like a stuntc.l form of the latter, and forms large patches on the wetter mountains of Canterbury and Westland. 0. caespitosn. creeping over stony ground, is, in early summer, A sheet of lovely blossoms. Also very beautiful are 0. sessilifiora, O. glandulosa and O. pvorepens. "Eves blue as the blue forget-me-not." sings Tennyson, aud the more prosaic modiste calls a certain silk "forgel-me-not" '-"blue." And, yet New Zealand's forget-me-nots behave with antipodean topsy-turveyness. and produce not blue but yellow flowers! Can "Ouida" be more of a botanist than her usual writings lead us to suppose, and have had our alpine meadow plant in her mind when speaking of a certain lady she mentions, "the treacherous gleam in her forget-me-not eyes"? Some of the yellow forget-me-nots, which have their home in dim river gorges or on wet, shady rocks, are of large size, and one is rather bronze coloured titan yellow. Of all our plants, the buttercups deserve mentioning. Of these there are quite a number, and they are far and away the finest buttercups on earth. The mountain lily (Ranunculus Lyallii) is their queen. This world-famed nlant raises great leaves from its very thick root-stock, each with a blade shaped like a saucer, sometimes more than six inches hi diameter, and a stout stuß: a foot or more iv height, inserted in the middle of the blade, and lifting it high from the ground. Excepting in the smaller R. Baueri. of South Africa, such leaf-fern is unknown in the buttercup family. In late November, December and early January, R. Lyallii puts forth a very tall stem, bearing numbers of blossoms of snowy whiteness, each as big as a five-shilling piece, and frequently more than thirty o.~>. one stalk. To behold this noble plant, an acre at a time in full bloom, is the sight of a lifetime to a lover of the beautiful. Ranunculus Godleyanus, a yellow buttercup, is nearly as striking, and so is the more northern R. insignia. The white R. Buchanani. of the Otagc Mountains, is also splendid, and mention must be made of the more recently named R. Matthews!i, which worthily bears the name of its energetic discoverer. Frequently generic names are hideous, Shut in Oelmisia we have one dainty enough to take a foremost place among those feminine, floral appelations, now so popurar. And well does a race of plants so beautiful deserve a fitting title. On every mountain side, at all seasons, it is the Celmisias which give tho characteristic stamp to the meadows, filling the air with aromantic fragrance and delighting the eye with their beauty of form or abundance of flowers. With one exception, all are true New Zealanders, aaid are probably a remnant of the long-vanished meadow plants of sunken southern lands. Two special classes occur—those with fine upright rosettes,. and those which trail over a considerable area, forming round mats. Some, again, have quite small rosettes and form dense, silvery cushions. such as Celmisia sessilifiora, C. argentea. The most handsome of the Celmisias is. perhaps, C. coriaeea-, a plant with large, stiff, silvery leaves and flower heads several inches in diameter. Senecio scorzonerioides, notwithstanding its being burdened with its i second name.( is one of the most showy cf New Zealand plants. .The author will never forgpt the meadows near the source of the river Poulter gleaming like snowflelds with the multitudes of its pure blossoms. Frequently the nieadnw is dobted with veronicas and other shrubs. Largo breadths of an Alpine Astelia are

often present, also tall tussock grasses such a* Danthonia xiaotilii end D. CiutningliaiQii. ROCK AMD SHINGLE-SLIP VEGETATION. The rocks of the alpine summits ■weathering away, and the rain not being sufficient to bear all the debris into the valleys, an enormous quantity of angular stones collects on the mountain i sides in many places, which may form steep slopes for thousands of feet. As the climber wearily ascends these "shingle-slips," as they are called, progress is slow, the stones constantly slip beneath his feet, and slide down the slope. No place could seem more unliktely to support, vegetable life. It is I in truth an alpine desert! Yet manj j of the meadows must have begun their career as shingle-slips, and all transi--1 tions , may be noted from the one to the ' other, j To the shingle-slip proper, a most prculiar series of plants belongs. They I have several characteristics in" eommoii. J All have long roots and are low-grow-ing. Many are succulent. Most are of a simitar colour to the shingle. Some J have leathery leaves and one. at j any rate, i\s covered with a most woolly mass of hr.-.irs. These shingle-slips become burni«£ hot in the sunshine, and yet on the evening of tho same day may Jbe icy cold. At some distance ' below the surface the stones are wet. These are a few of the plants:—A stiff-leaved grass (Poa sclerophylla), a .buttercup (Ranunculus Haasti'i), a plant of the carrot,,family (Hgnstieum carnosuluro), j a daisy, jet black, and with stamens like golden pin-htmds (Cotula atrata), one of the pink family (Stellaria, Roughii), the curious and sweat-scented j pincushion plant Notothlaspi rosulai turn), and a fleshy-leaved lobefia (L. Kouglui). On the shingle-slips the wonderful vegetaMe-sheep are encountered. These grow, rot on the shingle, but on the ! rosks. vrhirh the stomps have nearl y buried. Large examples form great hummocks, six f Pe t long by three feet across, or even more. Really they are shrubs of <lv» daisy family. ~nd are provided with ~ a thick, stout, wopdy. 3Uain stein :u;d strong roots, which pass far into the rock-crevices. Above, the steins brand] <igain and again, and towards their extremities are covered with small woolly leaves, packed as tightly as possible. Finally, stems, leaves and .ill are pressed into a derjse, hard, convey, mass, making an excellent and appropriate scat for a wearied botanist. Within the plant is a peat made of its rotting leaves and branches, which hold? -water like a sponge, and into which the iina] branchlets put their roots. Thus the plant lives m great measure on its own decay. The vege-table-sb?ep nre not inaptly named, for at a distance a shepherd might bo misled. Tho two principal "sheep are Haastia pulvi»aris and Raoulia eximimia. Before conchi'flitig. the Xew Zealand i edelweiss muht fee mentioned, of which there arc two species, Helichrysum grandiceps and H. Leontopodium. Both <iii> equisit.v and surpass their cele- ! brnted Swiss nameaak.?, Leontopodium alpinum. Perhaps H. Lieonto podium, when in full bloom, as it may be seen in late January on the Tararua and Ruahine inountains, is the most beautiful plasit in Xew Zealand.