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The Relationships of the Banks Peninsula Florula.
The Forest.—It will be clear from what has been said that the forest of Banks Peninsula is an outlier of Cockayne's North-eastern Botanical District, No. 8 in the map of New Zealand* showing proposed botanical districts. It does not bear any close relationship to the forests of the Canterbury foothills. The nearest hills are those to the north and north-north-west—e.g., Mounts Oxford, Karetu, and Grey. Here all the species finding their southernmost limit on Banks Peninsula are absent, with the exception of Clematis Colensoi and Leucopogon fasciculatum; and the timbertrees belong chiefly to the genus Nothofagus. It is true that Podocarpus totara is present in places on the foothills in small quantity, and P. spicatus and P. dacrydioides in still smaller quantities, but they are nowhere, as on the peninsula, the dominant species.
We get, however, to the westward at Mount Peel a mixed podocarp forest in which the above-mentioned species predominate, but it, too, differs much from the Banks Peninsula forest. This, of course, does not contain the species finding their southernmost limit on Banks Peninsula, but it contains an unusual variety of species, and amongst them several not found on the peninsula, such as Nothopanax simplex, Aristotelia Colensoi, Gaya Lyallii var. ribifolia, and Hoheria lanceolata. It thus appears that the Banks Peninsula forest must be regarded as an outlier of the Kaikoura coastal forest, which it closely resembles.
[Footnote] * See also Trans., N.Z. Inst., vol. 46, p. 58, 1914.
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The Subalpine Area.—This area, as might be expected, is related to the subalpine area of Mounts Grey and Karetu, hills of about the same height as Mount Herbert, and little more than thirty miles away to the north. In both localities Drapetes Dieffenbachii, Anisotome aromatica, and Olearia cymbifolia are amongst the first subalpine forms to appear above the forest line. Mount Oxford is higher and has a much more varied alpine vegetation; and even Mount Karetu from 1,500 ft. and upwards shows species not occurring on the peninsula: Amongst them are Coprosma repens, Celmisia spectabilis, Anisotome filifolium. Exocarpus Bidwillii, and Senecio geminatus. No doubt this is due to the fact that we have here to deal with a much larger subalpine area than on the peninsula. So far as I know, however, Ourisia macrophylla, Forstera tenella, and Oreomyrrhis andicola do not occur in the Mount Grey district. If further search does not reveal their presence, their absence might seem to indicate that the subalpine florula of the peninsula contains species belonging to an older alpine flora, not now existent in the neighbourhood. None of the plants referred to are species likely to have been recently brought there, or to have been brought in the first place by wind or birds. Still, we have not enough evidence here to come to any definite conclusions, and the matter must be left in abeyance. This review of the vegetation of Banks Peninsula must now be concluded, with the hope that before the present remnants of the primitive flora disappear every opportunity will be taken by local students to complete the work here outlined.
Before concluding this section I must thank those New Zealand botanists from whom I have received much kind assistance. Mr. Cheeseman has identified a number of species for me, particularly of ferns; as also has Mr. Petrie, who has given me much help in connection with the genera Coprosma and Uncinia. I owe much to the kindly suggestions and advice of Dr. Cockayne, who has studied the vegetation of the Port Hills; and Professor Wall, who has during several years closely examined the flora of the peninsula, has kindly revised the distribution of the species, and, as will be seen, made numerous additions to the list of localities given. I am particularly indebted to him for assistance with the ferns and with the genus Epilobium. I believe that the list as it now stands is fairly complete, and that the number of subsequent additions will be comparatively small.