Contributions to New Zealand Botany

W. Lauder Lindsay

First published by Williams and Norgate in 1868

Digitised and made available online by the University of Auckland Libraries and Learning Services and Auckland War Memorial Museum.

Epub © 2016 Early New Zealand Books Collection

ISBN 978-0-947487-92-8

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CONTRIBUTIONS
TO
NEW ZEALAND BOTANY

BY
W. LAUDER LINDSAY , M. D.,
F. R. S. EDINBURGH: F. L. S. LONDON:
FELLOW OF THE BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH:
HONORARY MEMBER OF THE PHILOSOPHICAL INSTITUTE OF CANTERBURY, NEW ZEALAND, THE BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF CANADA, THE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF HALLE, PRUSSIA, &c., &c.

WILLIAMS & NORGATE,
LONDON AND EDINBURGH.
1868.

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[CONTENTS]

CONTENTS.

I. INTRODUCTION...........5

II. HISTORY OF BOTANICAL RESEARCH IN OTAGO...........7

III. LOCALITIES AND CIRCUMSTANCES OF AUTHOR'S PLANT-COLLECTIONS IN OTAGO...........10

IV. PROJECTED FLORULA OF OTAGO...........13

V. COLONIAL SECTIONS IN NATIONAL HERBARIA...........17

VI. COMPARATIVE STUDY OF CULTIVATED FORMS...........20

VII. DETERMINATION OF SPECIES...........22

VIII. CLIMATOLOGY OF OTAGO...........25

IX. PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY OF OTAGO...........29

X. ENUMERATION OF PLANTS COLLECTED –

Phoenogams...........36
Cryptogams...........38
Protophytes...........43

XI. CONTINUITY OF VARIATION IN RELATION TO THE LIMITATION OF SPECIES...........46

XII. OBSERVATIONS ON GENERA AND SPECIES...........48

Genus I. Aciphylla...........48
II. Viscum...........52
III. Celmisia...........52
IV. Crepis...........54
V. Rubus...........54
VI. Acaena...........57
VII. Geum...........60
VIII. Geranium...........61
IX. Gaultheria...........64
X. Wahlenbergia...........66
XI. Veronica...........67
XII. Coprosma...........70
XIII. Sophora...........73
XIV. Phormium...........77
XV. Coriaria...........83

XIII. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES...........89

XIV. PLATES (OF NEW SPECIES), AND THEIR EXPLANATION –

1. Aciphylla Colensoi ...........93
2. Viscum Lindsayi ...........93
3. Celmisia Lindsayi...........94
Crepis Novae Zelandiae ...........94
4. Poa Lindsayi ...........94

XV. INDEX...........97

I. NAMES OF OTAGO PLANTS...........97

Scientific Names: Genera, Species, and Varieties...........97
Maori Names...........98
Settlers' Names...........99

II. GENERAL SUBJECTS...........99

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[INTRODUCTION]

INTRODUCTION.

HAVING an opportunity, in 1861, of visiting New Zealand, and of devoting a certain limited portion of time and attention to the field-study and collection of its plants, I was desirous of selecting, as the special field of my residence or travel, that province which seemed to offer at once the greatest botanical novelty – the greatest probability of the discovery of new species – and the greatest facility for their collection and study. With this view I chose Otago, then reputedly a young, quiet, pastoral province, where I had every reason to anticipate meeting with unusual facilities for both geographical exploration and botanical research. Believing that the Western Alps and the Central Lake basins (which latter had not apparently been visited by scientific travellers of any kind) constituted the most promising botanical field, I was specially desirous of traversing the province by the Clutha Valley, the Lakes, and the Alpine passes, to the west coast – somewhat by the route subsequently successfully followed by Symms, Caples, Hector, and Pyke.

I accordingly left the Clyde, for Dunedin, in July, 1861. I was fortunate in having as a fellow passenger Lieutenant-Colonel Cargill, Member of the New Zealand House of Representatives. By his kind assistance – which was most valuable, as that of one of Otago's best known pioneer colonists – I was enabled so far to arrange my plans on the voyage out; and I doubt not that, with the further aid of the Provincial Government, and under the auspices of the Provincial Survey, my scheme could and would have been carried into execution at any prior period in the history of Otago. It was doomed to be frustrated, however, by a most unlooked for cause, viz., the social revolution produced by the discovery of the auriferous riches of the province by Gabriel Read. Up to the date of my leaving Scotland, no intelligence of this important discovery had reached Britain. The discovery was, indeed, nearly cotemporaneous with the date of my departure from the Clyde. 1 And it was further a curious coincidence, that Gabriel's Gully, the scene of the earliest "Digging," was on the "Run" of my friend Lieutenant-Colonel Cargill, who was quite as ignorant as myself of the wonderful social change that had occurred in Otago until we arrived at the entrance to Otago Harbour. On

landing, I found a general condition of excitement and bustle, such as can only be understood by those who have witnessed on the spot the outbreak and crisis of a gold-digging mania. All available resources were concentrated on the Diggings; the attention of all classes of the community was thoroughly pre-occupied; and the ordinary operations of the Survey Staff were suspended. The risks of travel were considerable: "Sticking-up," and other features of "Bush-ranging," as it has been rendered familiar in the early history of Australia, were rife in Otago. What was of more importance in my case, labour was both scarce and highly valuable, and the cost of carriage correspondingly great. I could not have executed my plans without the aid of several men, and the use of drays and horses, for a considerable period (3 to 6 months). Failing thus in my overland scheme, I was still in hopes of reaching the magnificent western Fjords by sea, via the Bluff. But during my four month's residence in Otago, the navigation of its coasts was most reckless; numerous wrecks occurred, both of inter-colonial steamers and of local coasters; and even had I been prepared – contrary to the strongly-expressed advice of my friends among the Otago settlers – to undertake all the necessary risks, no opportunity of a suitable kind (as to locality) presented itself. In a word, I found it utterly impracticable to carry into effect any of my cherished schemes; and the circumstances of the time determined my excursions within comparatively narrow limits, in a district which is, or includes, the most highly cultivated and most populous part of the province. Fortunately, however, it comprises considerable variety of elevation, physical configuration, and geological character. And, further, its area had not been previously explored botanically. Whence it happened that my collection contained a much larger proportion of novelties than I had reason to anticipate. 2

1 Gabriel Read's discovery was made on 7th July, 1861, and the first gold escort left Tuapeka for Dunedin on 18th July, 1861, [according to the Southern Provinces Almanac for 1862.]

2 Otago Flora. Botan. Soc. p. 252.

[Botany in Otago]

HISTORY OF BOTANICAL RESEARCH IN OTAGO.

COMPARED with the North Island of New Zealand – especially with the Province of Auckland – and even with that of Nelson in the South 3 Island, few contributions of consequence had been made up to 1861 towards a Flora or Florula of Otago – now, at least, the most rapidly rising, wealthiest, and most important colony in New Zealand. This arose partly, no doubt, from its being a much younger colony than those just mentioned, founded, as it was, in 1847-8. 4 Collections by local botanists, which have been common in other parts of New Zealand, were unknown in Otago, so far, at least, as their publication is concerned, and their being thus made subservient to the purposes and progress of science. Several collections had been made, and some sent home, I am aware; but they were lost to science, from not having been sent to the proper quarters for utilisation. There are not wanting in Otago a few botanists with the requisite enthusiasm and inclination to devote themselves to the work of pioneer botanical collection; but in a young colony time and labour are too precious to the settler to permit of his devoting any considerable part thereof to science. His days and energies are alike absorbed in the pursuit of wealth – in establishing the basis of his future independence. His aims are, in the first instance, at least, essentially and necessarily, material and personal. Hence it generally happens – that unless there has been, as I think there should always be – a full Natural History Survey preliminary to the settlement of a new country, little progress is made towards a scientific knowledge of its natural productions till some considerable time after it has become thoroughly settled – till the earlier squatters, runholders and flock-owners, merchants and speculators, are succeeded by the more leisurely affluent and educated classes. That period had certainly not arrived in Otago in 1861, up to which date all the contributions of the least importance to

the Otago Flora were made by the Naturalists 5 of exploring or surveying expeditions sent from this country. So far as I am aware, these contributions, and these contributors – my predecessors in the work of botanical investigation in Otago – were the following: –

The earliest botanical explorers in Otago appear to have been Sir Joseph Banks and Dr. Solander, who were attached as Naturalists to Captain Cook's first expedition, in 1769. Their collection seems to have been mainly of West Coast species. They were succeeded, in March, 1773, by the two Forsters, father and son, and Dr. Sparmann, the Naturalists attached to Captain Cook's second voyage of discovery. So far as Otago is concerned, their collections were mostly confined to Dusky Bay, which has probably been more thoroughly examined botanically, and by a greater number of eminent Naturalists, than any other part of Otago or New Zealand of equal area. This Bay was again visited in the course of Cook's third voyage (between 1776 or 1777, and 1780), by Dr. Anderson, Surgeon to his expedition. It seems also to have been the scene of most of the botanical collections of Dr Menzies, the Surgeon and Naturalist of Captain Vancouver's discovery-expedition in 1791. He devoted himself chiefly to the collection of Cryptogams – especially Mosses and Hepaticae. His collections are now to be found in the Herbarium of the University of Edinburgh. Between the date of Vancouver's visit and 1851, no additions appear to have been made to the Otago Flora; but in that year important contributions proceeded from Dr. Lyall, the Surgeon and Naturalist of H. M. Survey Ship "Acheron," 6 under Captain Lort Stokes. Like Menzies, he devoted himself greatly, though far from exclusively, to the collection of Cryptogams; and it is undoubtedly mainly through his efforts and those of Menzies that our knowledge of the Mosses and Hepaticae of Otago is comparatively full and satisfactory. Again was Dusky Bay visited; but while his predecessors had not explored the West Coast north of this point, Dr Lyall's collections were made from the Fjords along the whole West Coast of Otago; while his visit embraced, also, on the East Coast, Otago Harbour. 7 It would thus appear that,

up to 1861, the West Coast of Otago was the chief locality of botanical collections. Dr Hooker's "Flora Novae Zelandiae" is a complete and trustworthy repertory of the result of Botanical research in Otago up to – not only 1853 and 1855, the dates of its publication, but 1861, the date of my own collections. For, so far as I am aware, between 1851 and 1861, no additions of any consequence were made, at least by publication, to the Otago Flora. To these collections, my own, in 1861, form a natural complement, representing, as they do, exclusively the vegetation of the East Coast belt of Otago.

The aggregate result of the labours of all the eminent Naturalists above mentioned, as well as of my own, merely amounts to this, that little more than certain parts of the coast have yet been botanically examined, while the great bulk of a country as large as Scotland remains 8 to be explored by the local botanist. So much is there, I believe, remaining to be done, and so important is the character of this remanent work, that I have no hesitation in strongly urging on the attention of the Otago Government, the desirablity of imitating the neighbouring Australian provinces of Victoria and New South Wales, by the appointment of a permanent Government Botanist. It does not fall within the scope of my present paper to detail the various strong grounds for advocating such an appointment; many of which, however, it cannot be difficult for the Colonial Government itself now to discover, and many of which will appear in the perusal of the present paper. 9

LOCALITIES AND CIRCUMSTANCES OF AUTHOR'S COLLECTIONS IN OTAGO.

MY head-quarters in Otago were the farm of Fairfield, 10 situated in the Greenisland district, about seven miles southwards of the capital, Dunedin. From this centre I made frequent foot excursions in every direction. The area botanically examined includes Dunedin and its vicinage; the Greenisland district with its coast and hills; the Saddlehill district; the Chain Hill ranges; and part of the East Taeri plain. I also made two extended excursions, the one to the lower Clutha, 11 the other to the Tuapeka gold field. 12 The former excursion included Inch Clutha; the banks of the Clutha between the Clutha ferry and the sea; and the coast on both sides of the mouth of the river, between the Kaitangata coal field, and Shaw's 13 Bay, to the south of the Nuggets. The Tuapeka gold field is inland, and includes the upland or hilly country watered by the Tuapeka, Waitahuna, and other small streams, tributary to the Clutha. The following table of mileage from Dunedin gives an approximate idea of the area of the district botanically explored: –

Taeri Ferry – twenty-two miles southward.
Tokomairiro Village – five miles from the sea; thirty-eight miles south-west.
Clutha Ferry – sixty miles south-west.
Tuapeka: Gabriel's Gully [via Tokomairiro) – sixty-five miles south-west; thirty-five miles west; twenty-seven from Tokomairiro; thirty miles from the sea (mouth of the Clutha).
Waitahuna Flat (via Tokomairiro) – fifty-six miles.)
Waitahuna Diggings (via Tokomairiro) – fifty-two miles. South-west.
Wetherstones Diggings (via Tokomairiro) – sixty miles.)

The whole area explored may be said to constitute a parallelogram of the East Coast belt of Otago – about sixty miles long, by an average of five, and maximum of thirty-five, broad; bounded on the north by Mount Cargill, Dunedin; on the south

by the Clutha and the Nuggets; on the west by the Tuapeka ranges; on the east by the East Coast; in superficial extent equal to less than one-eightieth of the whole province. This limited area consists mostly of settled land; it exhibits considerable variety of physical configuration and soil – including all elevations between the sea level and 1500 feet – as well as every graduation and combination of hill and valley, river and stream, bush and swamp, coast-cliffs, sand-dunes, and shingly beaches; representing also the main features of the general geology of the Province. 14 Not only, however, does it represent fairly the physical configuration and geology of the East Coast belt of Otago; but the Flora of this section of country, small comparatively though it be, is also representative of that of the Province generally, if we exclude its Alps, West Coast Fjords, and Central Lake basins. All travellers who have visited the interior, represent the vegetation as extremely uniform, till at least the Lake basins are reached. I believe, indeed, that the area examined by me is richer, both in its geology and botany, than perhaps any other part of the province of equal size.

My collections were made within a limited period. My residence in Otago extended from 7th October 1861, to 20th January 1862. But during only a portion of this period was it in my power to collect plants; nor was systematic botanical research or collection compatible with the main object I had in visiting Otago. I could devote only a certain portion of my time to botanical work, which was thus perfunctory, fragmentary, and superficial. So far, therefore, from having made an exhaustive collection in any department within even a limited area, my gatherings in all departments of the vegetable kingdom were superficial and imperfect – hastily and casually made, and at a season, moreover, unfavourable for the collection of, at least, Phaenogams. 15 The seasons in Otago are reversed as compared with Britain, e.g.

Spring....August. September. October.
Summer....November. December. January.

Autumn.....February. March. April,
Winter......May. June. July.

Hence it happens that in Otago, Christmas and the New-Year occur about midsummer, and their celebration-jubilees have all the characteristics of the latter gay floral season. The period of my residence, therefore, included portions of spring and summer only. I left Otago before many of its characteristic Phaenogams attained maturity – before their period of flowering and fruiting. Hence not a few of the Phaenogams I collected only in foliage 16 were not in a condition for identification. A further deduction of plants unfit for determination of species must be made as regards –

1. Plants destroyed or rendered useless by and during carriage home – through upsets of packages in dock or ship, loss of labels, &c.

2. Plants collected in a state unfit for preservation, e.g. many [especially gelatinous or fleshy] Fungi: 17 Fresh-water and Marine (chlorospermous) Algae or Protophyta.

3. Cryptogams collected in an imperfect state as to fructification, e.g. Micro-Fungi, in one condition only, or sterile.

The enumeration of my Otago gatherings, therefore, does not represent my entire collection; but only such portion thereof as was in a condition suitable – on examination many months after my return home – for specific determination.

PROJECTED FLORULA OF OTAGO.

WHILE in Otago, I was struck with a variety of circumstances, which seemed to me to point to the desirability of providing the settlers with some provisional or rudimentary Florula of their Province.

As yet, there is no such Florula; while I believe the utility of special Florulas to be great – whether in old or new countries. The standard general Flora of New Zealand, by Dr. Hooker, was not to be found within the province, either in public or private libraries. The references in that Flora to the vegetation of Otago are comparatively few, and relate exclusively to limited parts of its coasts.

The nomenclature of plants by Maoris and settlers is so far from being a guide to botanical distinctions, that it is repellent and obstructive. There is extreme confusion of terms, frequently relating to the same tree or plant.

There was general ignorance among all classes of settlers regarding the characters of the vegetation by which they were surrounded, and of which they were daily making use. The following may be adduced as a single illustration of the practical results of this ignorance. One of the most abundant and familiar shrubs of Otago is the Coriaria ruscifolia – known to the settlers as the "Toot" plant. It possesses in various of its parts poisonous properties, which have been destructive on a very large scale to cattle and sheep, and occasionally also (on the small scale) to man. During my residence in Otago, an immigrant population was being attracted to its shores in thousands by the then recent gold discoveries; while corresponding numbers of cattle and sheep were being introduced to supply the rapidly increasing markets. The Otago Government, desirous of warning immigrants of the dangerous character of Toot, gave instructions to the proper official to prepare, for extensive publication in all newspapers and Government Gazettes, a description of the plant, including its botanical characters, and physiological and toxic properties. It was, however, found impossible to do so, from lack of the necessary knowledge of the natural history of the plant. I was appealed to for assistance in drawing up the official document referred to; which I would have been only too happy to have granted had I been in a position to do so. But the plant was at the time a stranger to me. I had had no opportunity of seeing it in flower or fruit; nor was there any Herbarium, Botanic Garden, or published source of information of any kind in the Province, and so accessible to me. Hence it was impossible for me to

examine for myself its botanical character, or its chemical, toxic, or other properties. Since my return home, however, I have clone what in me lies to draw the attention of Botanists, Chemists, Toxicologists, and experimental Physiologists to a subject which appears to be new to this country. 18

I found there was a general feeling of want on the paid of the better educated colonists as to a work on the Flora of their Province, and a disposition both to collect and study, were the necessary adjuvanda supplied. There was, moreover, a frank confession, that even as a mere relaxation from the rough work of a colonist's life – as a relief to the tedium of its solitude and monotony in isolated and wild regions, – the study of their local Flora would prove of signal service.

On the other hand, there can be little doubt, I think, of the importance of a knowledge of botanical characters and classification as a guide to the development of the economical applications of the indigenous trees, grasses, and other plants of a new country; while it is with a view solely to such development that settlers will be induced, in the first instance at least, to undertake botanical studies. In the earlier stages of colonisation, science commends itself to notice only in so far as it immediately exhibits its money-making or money-saving power – its importance as a means of advancing the settler's pecuniary interests, as a pioneer in a country whose natural resources remain to be developed – the development whereof may contribute directly to his worldly wealth, while such development can only be thoroughly achieved by true science or its applications.

Circumstances and convictions such as these determined me to endeavour to supply what appeared to me an evident want, viz., – some form of "Tentamen" or " Primitiae" of the Florula of Otago. My ulterior object was to stimulate local botanists to the work of collection or study, in the hopes that the fruits of the former, if forwarded to Kew, would be worked up there by competent botanists, so as to constitute important contributions to the general New Zealand Flora; while the results of study would lead to the reduction of species, and the simplification of nomenclature and classification. On the one hand, I believe that much remains to be done in the work of collection, especially in certain recondite departments of the Cryptogamia; while on the other, I feel assured that it is only by the researches of the local botanist that it is possible to advance materially our knowledge of certain groups of New Zealand plants, (e.g. certain families of the Fungi,) whose perishable nature requires that drawings and descriptions should be made on the spot. 19

The scheme of my proposed publication embraced the following points: –

1. To give a full descriptive list of all plants, both Cryptogamic and Phaenogamic, already actually found in Otago; simplifying nomenclature and classification to the greatest possible extent, by the use of types or aggregate

species, and by giving comprehensive characters of genera and species; omitting confusing synonymy, and giving references only to such standard and accessible works as those of Dr. Hooker. By such means, I aimed at attracting, instead of repelling, the student, – repulsion being the general result of too elaborate arrangements of species and varieties, and of redundant synonymies.

2. To indicate the additional groups and genera, and in many cases the species, likely to occur in the Province, and which, therefore, deserved careful looking for.

3. To give as full information as practicable on economical properties and applications, with a view to the development of an Economic Flora of Otago and New Zealand; and as a subsidiary branch thereof, of a Medical Flora.

4. To give details as to geographical distribution, and the variation of species, – in order to the collection of all particulars, relating to these important subjects, pertaining to the types into which New Zealand species may ultimately be divided.

5. To indicate the practical applications of botanical science to various subjects 20 of acknowledged national importance in new countries, – e.g., forests and timbers, pasture grasses, fibre-producing plants, dye-stuffs, medicinal plants, gums and resins, food, shelter, and ornamental plants, garden fruits and flowers; local vegetable Teratology and Pathology – the abnormal or monstrous developments or diseases occurring, or likely to occur, in indigenous plants, and more particularly in plants of cultivation.

6. To introduce certain other subjects of general interest, but of a more purely scientific kind, – such as the inter-relations of climate and vegetation; a comparison of the climate and vegetation of the present day, with those of the tertiary and older geological epochs.

Accordingly, I accumulated a large mass of field notes in Otago, in connexion with considerable collections. To these were added, subsequently to my return home, the results of a leisurely examination of my Herbarium, and, to a certain extent, of the Herbaria of Kew and Edinburgh, 21 and of cultivated forms in various public and private gardens in this country, or on the continent. 22 And with a view, further, to all the completeness that was attainable, I made and included a digest of all the information bearing on Otago plants contained in Dr. Hooker's "Flora;" in various public documents of the Otago Government, such as Survey and Geological Deports; and in various works of travel, such as those of Dieffenbach, Thomson, Taylor, Symms, and others.

I had to some extent prepared this material for publication, when Dr. Hooker's "Handbook" appeared. Its official character – its cheapness, and consequent accessibility – and its inclusion both of my own collections and the subsequent ones of the provincial botanist, John Buchanan, – rendered it apparently supererogatory to publish my projected Florula, in this country at least; while my professional avocations are such as do not admit of my engaging in such work as colonial publication. I have been encouraged, or urged, to separate publication – in the colony for behoof of colonists – by authorities so eminent, or bodies so deservedly influential, as Dr. Hooker, Professor Balfour, and the Council of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. But circumstances have determined me on giving up all thought of now doing so; and I have found it more convenient for myself, and more suitable, apparently, to the altered requirements of the time, to publish fragmentarily and occasionally, in the transactions of various scientific societies, or in scientific periodicals in this country, the more original results only of my investigations, or collections, in Otago.

The present paper is one of these fragmentary contributions; which it has occurred to me to issue separately, in order to submit, in a collective form, a vidimus of the plants gathered, with relative commentaries, and certain general or introductory remarks, which apply to my whole papers on New Zealand Botany, whether already published, or yet to be so.

I do not, however, think that the mere fact of the issue of Dr. Hooker's "Handbook" is sufficient to neutralise or obviate the value of, or the necessity for, a special Florula of Otago, or other of the New Zealand provinces. On the contrary, I amstill convinced of its utility; and it is in order that I may, perhaps, prevail on some local botanist, at some future day, to undertake such a task, that I have ventured here to insert a slight history or biography that might otherwise appear egotistical.

COLONIAL SECTIONS IN NATIONAL HERBARIA.

IN order to study the range and forms of variation in the species I collected, and their allies – by a careful examination of the most extensive suites of specimens accessible to me, – I twice visited (in 1862 and 1865) the Kew Herbarium; once (in 1865) that of the Jardin des Plantes, Paris; and several times between 1863 and 1867 that of the Royal Botanic Garden of Edinburgh.

In the two first large public Herbaria, however, I found no separate collection of New Zealand plants, which are there absorbed in the general collection of those of the whole world. The elimination of the plants constituting a colonial flora, from so large a general collection as that of Kew or Paris, demands such an amount of time and labour, that, in my case, with the limited opportunities of a mere traveller or tourist, the attempt at examination was virtually futile. In Paris I did not make the attempt, even as regards the single department of Lichens, though I had the advantage of being accompanied by my friend, Dr. Nylander, who was intimately acquainted with the arrangement of that section of the Herbarium. In Kew I had time only to examine specimens of the five new 23 species figured in the present paper. Indeed, the non-existence of separate geographical or local Herbaria illustrative of the Colonial Floras, necessarily restricts the study of these Floras in large Herbaria to local or resident botanists, or to those with unlimited time at disposal. In other words, such a defect seriously detracts from the usefulness of such Herbaria to the ordinary students of special Floras. It is, doubtless, indispensable for great national Herbaria to possess a standard general collection; but there can be no doubt of the desirability of also possessing special or separate Herbaria, representing the floras of each of our great colonies – such as India, Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand, the Cape, West Indies, Canada, &c.; as well as of various Island-groups visited by special exploring or other expeditions, such as the Antarctic Islands, the Arctic lands and Islands, or the Polynesian Islands. Doubtless there are serious difficulties in the way of a geographical classification of a large Herbarium; nor do I think it possible consistently to carry out the principle of geographical division as regards all countries, and all depart-

ments – Phaenogamic and Cryptogamic – of a Flora. Nevertheless, I see no insuperable difficulty as regards the Phaenogams (treated as one group) of our chief colonies. All difficulties may be concentrated in the single and primary one – insufficient funds. The secondary or subordinate ones are – the necessity of greatly increased space and staff; of additional halls and rooms; of a multiplication of the machinery for supervision. In reference to a National Herbarium of such importance as that of Kew, liberal grants of public funds should be a secondary consideration with the Government of a country which, herself wealthy, boasts of so many wealthy colonies; and whose wealth, moreover, is so largely due to the development of the economical applications of their vegetable resources.

At Edinburgh, in 1866, I found a separate New Zealand Herbarium. Here, however, unfortunately, it is very imperfect. The specimens are comparatively few, and are in bad condition for the most part; while their nomenclature, which is mostly old, cannot be relied on. There is also a certain confusion of New Zealand plants with Australian and Tasmanian forms. Here, however, the principle of dividing the Herbarium into sections, representative of colonies or countries, has been duly recognized and acted on. A tentative arrangement has been made, so far as regards, at least, Phaenogams; and, so far as it goes, the arrangement in question is worthy of all commendation. Cryptogams, however, are still massed in one general Herbarium. There is no geographical distinction, – the only classification yet adopted being that which separates from each other, Ferns, Mosses, Hepaticae, Lichens, Algae, and Fungi. A consistent carrying out of the principle of geographical classification as regards Cryptogams would imply so great an additional space and staff, that I fear we must be content, for a long time to come, with a proper arrangement of Phaenogams. The arrangements at Edinburgh, however, are yet in their infancy. The Herbarium hall is not sufficiently commodious, I think, for the requirements of a rapidly accumulating Phaenogamic Herbarium. Separate accommodation for a library is desirable; to which should be added one or more rooms for private study – clean, commodious, well warmed, lighted, and ventilated – provided with washing materials and other conveniences – and possessing proper facilities for microscopical or other investigation. I cannot understand why arrangements comparable with those which are to be found in the admirable physiological and chemical laboratories of continental universities, and even in many of the free libraries of our own country, should not be found in our important National Herbaria. Ultimately, I am told, it is intended at Edinburgh to add to the Herbarium a Botanical Library, containing small select groups of the chief works of reference pertaining to each important Flora or Florula, – this addition being, with others, merely a matter of time, and the voting of Government funds. Such a step is urgently needed; for the present Library of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh, which is neither catalogued nor arranged, though possessing many valuable works, is at present useless to the student.

Were the arrangements presently contemplated at Edinburgh, with some such modifications or additions as I have here ventured to suggest, carried out, the Edinburgh Herbarium would be superior in some important respects to any other public Herbarium with which I am acquainted.

With the present defects of our National Herbaria, it is too frequently impossible for the student to do justice to himself or his subject, unless, by favour of their curators, he procures a loan of the particular group of plants he is studying, and examines them leisurely in the retirement and comfort of his own cabinet. Fortunately, where the groups in question are of only secondary importance, – that is, are not standards (or portions thereof,) constantly in use, – there is no difficulty in the accredited student-proper obtaining such a privilege At all events, I have more than once had, or had offers of, such a privilege, at the hands of Dr. Hooker, of Kew, and Professor Harvey, of Dublin.

It must not be supposed that I hold responsible for any of the defects here alluded to the distinguished Botanists who preside over the custody of our National Herbaria. I have little doubt, indeed, that their views virtually coincide with at least many of those above expressed. But they are hampered, it would appear, with a most inadequate command of funds; which renders it simply impossible, in the meantime, to carry out reforms to any extent, however in themselves these are to be desired.

COMPARATIVE STUDY OF CULTIVATED FORMS.

IN order still further to acquaint myself with the variations of species, I have lost no opportunity of studying New Zealand plants in cultivation in this country. In especial, I have examined all New Zealand plants growing in greenhouses, or in open ground throughout the year, in –

1. The Botanic Gardens of Kew, Paris, Geneva, Edinburgh, and Glasgow.

2. The private gardens of Mr. Anderson Henry, Hay Lodge, and Mr. Gorrie, Rait Lodge, both at Trinity, near Edinburgh; of Mr. Henderson, Towerville, Helensburgh.

3. The Nurseries of Messrs. Dickson and Turnbull, at Kinnoull, Perth.

4. Various Cemeteries or Public Gardens, e.g. the Dean Cemetery, Edinburgh.

I have also had a somewhat extensive correspondence with various practical horticulturists, who have more or less devoted themselves to the acclimatisation in this country of New Zealand trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants, – more especially with Mr. Gorrie, the Horticultural Editor of the "Farmer"

In the course of my inspections and inquiries, I was much struck with the antagonism between botanists-proper and horticulturists-proper, – between the scientific class of observers on the one hand, and the practical class on the other, – in regard to questions of such interest as that of species. As a general rule, the former are species-reducers – the latter species-multipliers: the former generalise, while the latter stick fast by details. Horticulturists are in the habit of using, as specific designations, terms of their own which are pre-eminently vague and unsatisfactory, rendering the work of correlation or identification difficult in the extreme. But their observations on points of fact are frequently of value, as correcting the sometimes premature generalisations of botanists.

The same investigations have led me to adopt certain strong views on the subject of the Acclimatisation in this country of New Zealand plants. I believe that the number and variety of New Zealand plants already introduced into cultivation in this country are small in proportion to those that remain to be introduced with advantage; and they are, as a whole, much more hardy than is generally supposed. It appears to me that British cultivators err in treating New Zealand plants too much as semi-tender or semi-hardy, protecting them under glass instead of ex-

posing them to the vicissitudes of the British climate, unprotected, or with little protection, throughout the year. 24 Among hardy sub-alpines alone there are many of considerable beauty that would prove acceptable additions to our shrubberies or gardens, and that would require little care in cultivation, yet remaining to be introduced. Hardy shrubby species of a suitable kind are to be looked for, e.g., in such genera as Veronica, Olearia, Senecio, Pittosporum, Aristotelia, Carmichaelia, Coprosma, Cassinia, Dracophyllum, Parsonsia, Pimelea, &c.

DETERMINATION OF SPECIES.

THE first duty of a botanist who undertakes the naming of plants from a new area is, I think, to determine what forms have previously been collected in other fields, what have been already described, and what are, as yet, unknown to science. The acquisition of such knowledge is, however, a matter of no little difficulty; indeed, I will venture to say that, in some cases at least – to botanists of ordinary acquirements, and with ordinary opportunities, it is impossible. For it implies in the investigator a thorough knowledge of the languages of all educated nations, and a familiarity with the scientific literature of the world. Such familiarity, again, can only be acquired by habitual access to the richest scientific libraries – libraries of which only our great centres of scientific research – London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, St. Petersburg – can boast. He must have access, in a similar way, to the largest general Herbaria; for they may, and often do, contain evidences that plants have been both named and collected, which are not to be found in publications of any class. But these Herbaria, like the libraries in question, are only to be met with in large university cities. The proper consultation of such libraries or Herbaria further implies unlimited leisure, with local residence, or habitual facilities for travel – advantages which must be at least extremely rare among what are properly so-called the "Working Botanists" of our day, – many of whom are provincial, and, by the accident of their residence and avocations, are quite isolated from the opportunities of research afforded by, or in, great cities.

Considering the infinitude of forms in which the results of scientific research are now given to the world, in treatises, pamphlets, and books innumerable; in the transactions and proceedings of all sorts of societies; in scientific periodicals of endless variety; and considering, moreover, how incessantly such publications are being issued from thousands of printing presses, it would be truly a matter of surprise if any individual botanist were acquainted with everything that had been written on a given subject, up to a given date. In the very limited department of Lichens, – in which the labourers are very few compared with those who devote themselves to the study of Phaenogams, – I have found it quite impossible to satisfy myself that I knew all that had been published on a particular species or group; notwithstanding the devotion of every effort, and all opportunities at my command, to the perusal of scientific literature, in public libraries, on the continent

or at home. 25 And if this be so with the Lichens, how much more certainly must it be my case in reference to the Phaenogams of any area, especially foreign.

In studying book-species, I have been impressed with the fact, or belief, that the same plant is sometimes described under a dozen different names or upwards, 26 generic as well as specific; that varieties, species, and genera, are confounded; that embarassing synonyms abound to such an extent as to be obstructive to scientific progress, – their disentanglement occupying time that might be otherwise profitably devoted to original research; that a "system," instead of being a perspicuous key to names and characters, is, too frequently, a labyrinthine puzzle; that systematic botany is burdened and confused with endless unnecessary and mischievous names and groups; that mere name-giving and species-making occupy much too prominent a place; that premature and defective descriptions abound. Such defects of systematisation result, in some measure at least, on the one hand, from non-attention to the cardinal rule – that the basis of the determination of species from new areas should be, an assurance as to what forms have, or have not, previously been recognised and described; and on the other, from the apparently too common presumption that species from new areas are probably, if not necessarily, new to science.

There are many other important qualifications which ought, in my opinion, to be possessed by the systematist – by the describer or determiner of plants from new fields; but it is unnecessary further to pursue the subject here, for, inasmuch as I have found myself deficient in the first or fundamental qualification, viz., an assurance as to what species had, or had not, been previously described, I have not ventured, where I could avoid it, to name my Otago collections, preferring to avail myself of the valued assistance of the first botanical specialists in this country or on the continent. My Phaenogams and Ferns were therefore determined by Dr. Hooker; the Marine Algae by the late Professor Harvey; the Diatomaceae by Dr. Greville, (alas! also now the late); the Lichens, for the most part, by Professor Nylander, of Paris and Helsingfors; the Mosses and Hepaticae by Mr. Mitten, of Hurstpierpoint; and the Fungi by Mr. Currey, of London. To all these eminent authorities in the special departments of botanical research to which they are well known to have devoted themselves, I now beg to offer my grateful acknowledgments; more especially are they due to Dr. Hooker, whose assistance, as I have elsewhere stated, 27 was not confined to the mere determination of species.

Where I have, in exceptional cases, (e.g., Lichens or Fungi,) found it necessary

or desirable in describing plants new to science [so far as my limited opportunities or data enabled me to judge] to assign names, I have done so with the uncomfortable feeling that they may have been already and better described by previous authors, and that I have been unwittingly and unwillingly adding to that very complexity and redundancy of synonymy, which I have just had occasion so signally to condemn, and to which I have myself, in some departments of research, sacrificed considerable amounts of time and labour, that would have been otherwise better bestowed [on the publication of the fruits of original investigation.]

CLIMATOLOGY OF OTAGO.

NO account of the vegetation of Otago can be considered complete, which is not introduced by some information on its Climatology, Physical Geography, and Geology; and there is this additional reason for my giving here a very brief sketch of these departments of its natural history – so far as relates, at least, to the area of my botanical collections – that no information thereupon, of any scientific value, is easily accessible in this country.

Insufficient data yet exist for forming a correct estimate of the general Meteorology of Otago, or of any section thereof. Up to the period of my visit to Otago, only one official series of Meteorological observations had been recorded, viz., that of the Rev. Dr. Burns, at Dunedin. They were superseded and continued in 1862 by those of the Meteorological Observatory, 28 established at Dunedin, under Mr. Richard B. Gore, in connection with the Provincial Geological Survey. Of these two series of records, the latter are the more scientific and complete, and, presumably, the more accurate. But they are not the more useful or suitable for present purposes; for the meteorological statistics of Otago since 1862 are so variously tabulated in different numbers of the annual statistical records of New Zealand, that I find it impossible to institute comparisons on the one hand, or to deduce general results, having any uniformity, on the other. I have, therefore, deemed it more appropriate to my present subject to construct for myself a table, which aims only at exhibiting approximative and general results. In its construction I have made use of all the data accessible to me [representing a period of about fifteen years – from 1850 to 1865]: and especially of the official "Statistics of New Zealand," annually issued by the General Government, and which that Government has done me the honour to forward regularly since my visit in 1862.

GENERAL METEOROLOGY OF DUNEDIN. 29

[Temperature, Pressure, Moisture, Wind, Cloud, Ozone]

[Temperature, Pressure, Moisture, Wind, Cloud, Ozone]

Assuming that the tables of Dr. Burns and Mr. Gore represent faithfully the Meteorology of Dunedin, they are yet most inadequate representatives of the general climatology of the province. In a country with so varied a physical configuration, there must be a great diversity of local climates. The climate of the Western Fjords differs, doubtless, in important particulars, from that of the East coast, and that of the Lake basins from both. 30 Not only so; but, if I may judge from the records, to which I had access, kept by old settlers for a series of years – from those kept by myself during my residence in Otago – and from a comparison of both these groups of records with those kept by the Dunedin Observatories – there are equally great diversities of climate in very limited districts; e.g., in different parts of the area which I visited between Dunedin and the Clutha. It would appear that very different climate or weather may occur on different sides of the same hill-range. Dunedin itself is represented by the settlers as being exceptionally pluviose; – it is to Otago what Greenock is to Scotland; – and the bad character, which it bears in this respect, is assigned as a reason for their seldom visiting, or residing in it. Meteorological statistics, however, scarcely bear them out in such assertions.

In order to a proper knowledge of the local climates of Otago, and of their aggregate or mean, – the general climate of the province, – it is necessary, as I pointed out in 1862, 31 that there should be established a numerous series of Meteorological Stations throughout the province, in connexion with the Central Observatory at Dunedin – furnished with the most modern standard instruments, and presided over by competent observers and recorders of phenomena. Such a machinery obviously cannot be established at once; and if it were, many years must elapse before data accumulate sufficient in kind or number for the deduction of useful generalisations.

But no Meteorological tables, however full and accurate, can adequately indicate the important inter-relations of climate and vegetation. From the published Meteorological statistics of Otago, it would never be gathered that the winter, even on the plains and coasts, is frequently very severe, both as respects frost and snow; that considerable snow-falls sometimes, though rarely, occur at so low elevations, and so near the sea, as Dunedin, where the snow is sometimes in sufficient quantity for snow-"balling," and the ice for skating; that storms of snow, hail, or sleet, sometimes occur, even in summer, in the Greenisland district, at elevations so low as 1000 or 1400 feet, (on Saddlehill);

that even in summer, in the same district, morning and evening fires are rendered desirable, if not necessary, by the lowness of the temperature; that night frosts sometimes occur very late in spring, or even in summer, down to the sea level, destroying young vegetation – sometimes, on the plains, rendering the raising of garden crops precarious; that on the gold-fields there is annually considerable loss of life by frost bite or snow drifts; that losses of sheep sometimes occur by thousands from snow drifts; that its winds, which are sudden and fitful, include all forms between the cold gales locally known as "Busters," and the hot dust winds that sweep across from Australia; that Otago weather is eminently capricious – marked by extremes, and sudden changes, of temperature; that the main difference between the climates of the eastern seaboard of Otago and Scotland lies in the less distinction, in the former, between the seasons, and the superior mildness of the winter in relation to the summer, with, in general, a greatly inferior snow fall. Nor should we ever infer the existence of an equally unlooked for group of phenomena, viz., the contiguity of what has generally been regarded as subtropical, jungle or forest vegetation, (viz., Tree-ferns, Myrtaceae, Araliaceae, &c.,) to glaciers rivalling those of the Alps and Himalayas; 32 or the facts that immigrant British weeds root and spread with amazing vigour and rapidity, displacing and replacing the strongest indigenous vegetation; 33 and that all the British cereals, fruits, and flowers, are grown with great ease and success. 34

Evidence already exists of the production of an artificial climate in some parts of Otago, or of the modification of the natural climate, by man's operations, especially as to drainage and timber-felling. These operations tend, in Otago, to render the climate drier and warmer; and such a change has already been experienced in the settled districts around Dunedin, as the result of swamp-draining and forest-clearing.

PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY OF OTAGO.

THE Province of Otago (including that southern wedge thereof excised for political reasons in 1861, – Southland,) 35 extends between 44° 40' and 46° 80' south latitude, and 166° and 171° 10' east longitude. Its area is about 25,000 square miles, or nearly equal to that of Scotland. Its length is 150, its breadth 180, and its coast line 400, miles.

In its general physical aspect, Otago may be said to combine the features of Scotland, Norway, and Switzerland. The greater part of the Province – especially in the interior, and on the western sea-board – is hilly, mountainous, or alpine. Its western alps, which attain an elevation of upwards of 9,000 feet, 36 form part of that chain which runs throughout the South Island, and which culminates in Canterbury, in the "Mount Cook" of the settlers – the "Ahoa-rangi" (the "Piercer of the clouds of heaven") of the Maori; whose height has been variously estimated at 12,460, 13,200, and 13,362 37 feet. This Mont Blanc of New Zealand is ribbed with some magnificent glaciers, which, in respect of size, rival those of the Himalayas rather than those of the Swiss Alps. Some glaciers, of considerable size, 38 occur also within the Otago boundary, in the north-west corner of the Province, flanking the alps between the Wanaka and Wakitipu Lakes, and the west coast. The higher of the Otago alps are covered also with perennial snow – the perpetual snow-line varying in elevation from 4,000 to 8,000 feet. 39 The higher alps are generally barren

of nearly all but cryptogamic vegetation; but much of the lower alps is wooded, imparting a picturesque beauty to their scenery, of the kind with which we are familiar in Scotland, in our Trossachs. Much of Otago consists of hilly or upland country, of the character of that which is represented in Scotland by the Lowthers or Grampians, Sidlaws or Ochils, – mostly open and grass-clad, constituting the principal pasture-grounds of the Province.

Embosomed amidst magnificent alpine scenery, in the western interior, are several large and important Lakes, which occupy a great portion of the longitudinal axis of the Province – and so arranged as to constitute almost a chain extending from its northern boundary line nearly to the southern coast. They have the physical features and attributes of the more alpine Swiss lakes, but are, for the most part, on a much grander scale. They include the following: –

* According to different measurements.

But the Province contains, also, numerous other lakes of minor magnitude; of which the principal are the Waihola, Waipori, Taeri, Tuakitoto, Kakapo, Waiuna, and North and South Mavora lakes. Of these, the Waihola, Waipori, and Tuakitoto lakes occur in the district between Dunedin and the Clutha; but none of them were specially visited by me during my excursions.

The Fjords of the West Coast rival, and probably surpass, those of Norway, in the grandeur of their alpine scenery. They are numerous, long, narrow, tortuous, and deep-bounded by lofty, and generally more or less precipitous, 40 mountains, of an average elevation of 3000 to 7000 feet. 41 The precipitous character of the boundaries of the Fjords, and the height and narrowness of the gorges, which open frequently into their heads, may be estimated by the dimensions of many of the Waterfalls. Travellers have recorded the latter as varying from 100 to 1800, or even 2000, feet high; 42 and sometimes a continuous series of cascades may be seen on the precipitous face of mountains 3000 feet high and upwards. 43

The Province is watered by five large Rivers, besides innumerable minor rivers and streams. The larger rivers have the character of those of Iceland, and the glacier-fed rivers of other European countries, viz., – they are, with their lake-feeders, frequently of milky hue – broad, shallow, rapid – liable to sudden and dangerous floods – their channels frequently shifting – frequently, also, broadening out into numerous arms, separated by islands or by beds, sometimes of enormous extent, (e.g., those of the Waitaki, half a mile to a mile broad) of shingle or gravel, or by dangerous quicksands. These shingle-beds frequently possess a somewhat peculiar vegetation, or are singularly sterile. Of all the Otago rivers, the finest and most important is the Clutha, which is, moreover, the largest river in New Zealand. It issues from the Wanaka and Hawea lakes, and has a feeder also from the Wakatipu lake; so that it may be said to drain the greater part of the interior of the Province. Its length from the lakes to the sea is variously estimated at 100 to 120 miles, with a fall of a 1000 feet in that distance. 44 It is navigable for fifty-nine miles from its mouth, or to about nine miles above where it receives the Tuapeka stream. According to the calculations of my friend, J. M. Balfour, C. E., Government Marine Engineer for New Zealand, it discharges, at its lowest, 1,690,401 cubic feet of water per minute – which is, in other words, six times as much as the Tay, (whose discharge, again, is the largest of any British river.) It has no estuary; but a long narrow sand-spit or bar has been thrown across its mouth by the prevalent N.E. winds. It divides before it disembouches into the sea, so as to form and embrace the flat alluvial island of Inch Clutha, which has a structure similar to that of our Carse of Gowrie. I had an opportunity of judging of the rapidity of its current by the difficulty experienced in "tracking" a boat against it during a botanical expedition from Finegand to the Nuggets. 45

Throughout the Province are to be found numerous remains of former extensive lakes, estuaries, and rivers, in the form of "flats" and "terraces" of clay, loam, gravel, or sand, – resembling, save in their greater dimensions, corresponding features in the physical geography of Scotland. Open valleys or "flats" of considerable extent are common in the hilly parts of the country; besides which, some extensive plains or downs occur, which rival in fertility, and resemble in their geology, the "Carses" of Scotland.

The geological basis of the greater part of the Province is the metamorphic slate series of rocks – consisting, mostly, of gneiss, mica, clay, chlorite, hornblende, and talcose schists, with their quartzites – all, probably, of silurian age. Granite

or syenite occurs only at one or two localities on the southern (e.g., the Bluff), and western (e.g. Preservation Inlet), coasts. The next most widely distributed group is that of the tertiaries – the debris of the disintegration of the preceding series; which include a variety of fossiliferous (foraminiferous), arenaceous limestones, or calcareous sandstones – apparently of marine origin, and a series of lignitiferous strata, embracing conglomerates, sandstones and claystones, sands, clays, and marls. The tertiary limestone districts have the peculiarities of older limestone districts in Britain. They abound in caves, fissures, subterranean channels, and funnel-shaped holes of unknown depth exactly analogous to the "gylls" of western Yorkshire (the Ingleborough district), – the result of unequal erosion by water or the weather. Caves and fissures of every size are common, e.g., in the Greenisland district; subterranean streams are heard running; rivers or springs are seen suddenly to disappear and reappear; and stories are told of dangerous pit-falls, of depths which would be marvellous and incredible were we not familiar with such physical phenomena in connexion with similar geological conditions in many other parts of the worlds. The tertiaries include, also, the important and extensively diffused auriferous "drifts" – of conglomerates, clays, gravels, and sands; the whole being superficially covered by red or yellow sandy clays, 46 which are to be found of various depths on the hill-tops, as well as on the plains. The metamorphic slates and the tertiaries are penetrated and upheaved at many points by eruptive masses – frequently constituting hills or hill-ranges – of trap or trachyte, which, as a series in all their variety, are well represented in the Dunedin district. 47

The foregoing remarks apply to the Province as a whole; those which follow bear reference more especially to that small section thereof which I visited.

Dunedin stands at the head of the only considerable fjord of the east coast, – that known as "Otago Harbour," which is sixteen miles long. Both shores are hilly. On the northern shore, especially, the hills are frequently wooded to their summits, rise somewhat abruptly from the water, and are so massed, as to render the scenery extremely picturesque, – e.g., around Port Chalmers. The hills of the south shore are comparatively bare, and frequently present, in the foreground, sand-dunes, which contribute materially to their somewhat dry, sterile, aspect. Behind Dunedin rises the range of Flagstaff, wooded below, but bare above, – though covered, like our Braemar alps, with the remains of former forests. To the left, or north, stands Mount Cargill, wooded to its summit, – forming the centre of some beautiful Highland – Dunkeld-like-scenery. To the right or south, at a distance of two or three miles, is the open ocean, at the locality known as "Ocean Beach," – a stretch of sands and

sand-dunes, 48 resembling those of Barry or Tentsmoor, at the mouth of the Tay, separated from Dunedin only by a level swamp of alluvial clay, having in its centre a patch of "bush", – a circumstance that, with others, points, apparently, to a local terrestrial subsidence. The hills around Dunedin are mostly either trappean or trachytic – the rocks constituting the former including a great variety of basalts, amygdaloids, porphyries, and tuffes, apparently – like all the Otago traps I saw – of newer tertiary age.

The Greenisland coast, immediately to the south of Ocean Beach, presents a fine series of cliffs, somewhat resembling, in general appearance, those about Arbroath, save that they are of a pale buff, instead of a dark red, colour; consisting of a soft, friable, tertiary limestone or sandstone, 49 pierced and capped by trappean rocks; of which those of the Forbury Head (basaltic porphyry), and of the bold headland known as Greenisland Bluff or Peninsula, (columnar basalt,) are examples. The scenery is bold and picturesque, the cliffs forming, occasionally, grand mural precipices – the arrangement of the columns in the Bluff giving it some resemblance to Arthur Seat (Sampson's Ribs), or Staffa. Stretching inland from the coast-cliffs, the Greenisland district consists of undulating hills, which support a rich cultivated vegetation – rich, by reason, apparently, of the chemical character of the subsoil. The district is bounded towards the west or interior by the trappean mass of Kaikorai Hill, (basalt, basaltic porphyry and amygdaloid,) and the Chain Hill range (mica slate); on the south by the stream of the Kaikorai and by the basaltic masses of Stoneyhill and Saddlehill. In Stoneyhill the basalt occurs in beautiful horizontal columns or prisms, excelling, in distinctness of form, those of Greenisland Bluff. Both Saddlehill, Kaikorai Hill, and the Chain Hills, are flanked by lignitiferous tertiaries and auriferous drifts. The lower part of the valley of the Kaikorai, near its mouth, (which is, like the majority of rivers and streams on the east coast, 50 obstructed by sand,) consists of a level swamp or meadow, and exhibits, on a small scale, some of those terraces, marking the level of former lakes or estuaries, which occur on a grand scale so plentifully in the interior.

Beyond Saddlehill and the Chain Hills, lies outstretched the extensive and rich plain of the Taeri, – an alluvial tract, resembling in its structure our Carse of Gowrie. Much of it is still in the state of morass. 51 It exhibits only one isolated patch of "bush," or primitive forest – an indication, apparently, as in the case of the Hillside swamp at Dunedin, of terrestrial subsidence. The plain is watered by a river, which, in this part of its course, resembles the English Ouse, or a

canal, rather than any of our Scottish rivers: sluggish, with low banks of clay, sand, or shingle. The Taeri plain is bounded southwards by ranges of hills higher than, but otherwise resembling (geologically), the Chain Hills. They separate this plain from the larger area of the Tokomairiro, which resembles it in structure. Between the Tokomairiro and the Clutha, the country is hilly, and of the character of that subsequently to be noticed as constituting the area of the Tuapeka gold field.

The Lower Clutha valley, between the Clutha ferry and the sea, is bounded, or broken up, by the bold hills of Kaitangata, the Ferry Bluff, the Kahiku ranges, and the cliffs of the Nuggets and Shaw's Bay. The cliff scenery, especially in the latter localities, rivals in boldness and beauty that of the Greenisland coast; but its physical character is somewhat different, the rocks being much harder and darker (blackish-blue), consisting of a series of stratified traps, (conglomerates, greenstones, basalts, felstones, – frequently slaty,) associated with fossiliferous beds, (containing Ammonites, Mytilus, Monotis, Inoceramus, &c.) apparently of mesozoic age. 52

The Tuapeka district is wholly highland, or hilly, pasture land, resembling our Lowthers in external configuration, and our Grampians in geological character. Like the former, as illustrated in the Leadhills Gold-field, the hills are of no great elevation (1,000 to 2,000 feet); have a gently rounded outline, and comparatively open valleys, 53 which at their confluence generally form "flats;" they are grassed to the summit, seldom exhibiting (in their valleys) patches of "bush;" and had (when I visited them) a bare yellow aspect. The constituent rock is mica-slate, or gneiss, with auriferous quartzites-covered on the hill-tops, frequently, as well as in the "flats," with lignitiferous or auriferous tertiaries, similar to those of Greenisland.

The following table 54 of heights shows conveniently the principal elevations in the districts which I visited:

I. GREEN ISLAND DISTRICT.

Elevation above sea.

Saddlehill-chief peak, – 1565 feet.
" " lesser peak, – 1414 "
Scroggs' Hill, – 1160 "
Kaikorai Hill, – 1092 or 1098 " 55

Chain Hills: –
Abbott's Hill, – 1190 feet.
Summit level of road to Middle Taeri, – - 1280 "
" " of road to North Taeri, – 1185 "
" " of Great South Road, – 415 "
" " of road across Kaikorai Hill, – 550 "
Greenisland Hills, – - 603 "

II. – DUNEDIN DISTRICT.

Mount Cargill, – 2297 or 2300 " 56
Wetherstone's Inn, – 1107 "
Swamp Hill, – 2162 "
Flagstaff, – 2190 or 2200 " 57
Signal Hill-two peaks, – 1212 and 1300 "
Lookout Point, – 378 "
Forbury Hill, – 524 "
Bellevue Hill, (Dunedin,) – 698 "
Maori Hill, (Pelichet Bay,) – 462 "
Moray Place, (Dunedin,) – 55 "
Hillside, (Caversham,) – 75 "

III. – LOWER CLUTHA DISTRICT.

Shaw's Bay: Cliffs, – 270 "

IV. -TUAPEKA DISTRICT.

Summit level of road between Tuapeka and Waitahuna, – 1802 "
Ranges between Tuapeka and Waitahuna, – 1106 "
Mount Stewart, (Woolshed,) – – - 1433 "

3 I follow the eminent geographer, Keith Johnston, in what is both the best and most recently published map of New Zealand, (1864,) in designating the more southern of the two great islands of New Zealand – that, viz., which contains the Provinces of Nelson, Canterbury, and Otago – the South Island, – a designation which is being adopted by the Governor and General Assembly of the Colony. Until recently, however, the island in question was generally known as the Middle Island, and it is so designated in Dr. Hooker's works. What was then called the South Island is the "Rakiura" of the natives – the "Stewart's Island" of whalers and settlers: a mere insignificant appendage (geographically) of Southland.

4 The colony was founded on 23d March, 1847.

5 These gentlemen were Naturalists only in a certain sense. Officially they were the Surgeons of the ships, in which, or expeditions with which, they sailed. Dr. Lyall explains to me, (Oct., 1864): "As Surgeon of H. M. S. Acheron, I was supplied by the Admiralty with the materials required for collecting objects in all branches of Natural History, and made pretty large collections accordingly; but had no official appointment as Naturalist; nor am I aware of any officer belonging to the navy ever having held such an appointment whilst serving under orders from the Admiralty."

6 This vessel was commissioned in 1847, but did not reach New Zealand till the end of 1848. It anchored in Otago Harbour, in 1850; but Dr. Lyall's collections were mostly made in the course of the following year, 1851.

7 Dr. Lyall himself informs me (Oct. 1864) that "The immediate shores of Otago Harbour were the only parts of the East Coast of the Settlement on which I had an opportunity of collecting. On the West Coast, I examined parts of the following places, and got to a height of at least 3000 to 4000 feet above the sea at some of them: –
Preservation Inlet. Chalky Inlet. Dusky Bay. Breaksea Sound.
Thompson's Sound. Bligh Sound. Milford Sound."
These localities embrace the whole West Coast of Otago, and may be safely held to be in the aggregate fairly representative thereof in a Botanical point of view.

8 At the present date, such a statement requires great modification. The collections of John Buchanan, the Botanist attached to the Geological Survey under Dr. Hector – a survey which did not begin its operations till after my departure from New Zealand – have added largely to the Otago Flora; and in particular have given an excellent and comparatively full general idea of the vegetation of the interior. But I am convinced that very much remains to be accomplished in all departments of the Otago Flora; and signally in some of the more difficult departments of its Cryptogamic Botany, e.g. those which relate to the Protophyta (Desmidiae especially), and to the lower orders of Fungi, Lichens, and Algae.

9 Vide Section on the "Florula of Otago."

10 The property and residence of my friend, Wm. Martin, Member of the Provincal Council of Otago; himself an excellent botanist.

11 From 25th November, to 12th December, 1861

12 From 2d to 6th January, 1862.

13 So called, for convenience sake, by myself, in honour of my friend, John Shaw, of Finegand, Member of the Provincial Council of Otago, who accompanied me in the excursion. A night was spent under canvass, at the edge of the bush, in the bay in question. Finegand formed my head-quarters during my Clutha excursion.

14 Vide Section on "Physical Geography and Geology of Otago," which describes more fully the localities of my collection. Compare also the more specific descriptions given in my papers on
Otago Lichens p. 349
Otago Algae p. 420
" " Fungi p. 13
" " Mosses p. 22
" " Ferns p. 27
" " Diatoms p. 130

15 Some groups were not collected at all, others only to a very limited extent in one spot, or in a very few localities. For instance no Desmidiae were collected; no Marine Diatomaceae; scarcely any Protophyta save fresh water Diatomaceae, and from mostly one series of marshes; Marine Algae were gathered almost exclusively at one point on the coast; while no separate attention was given to Fungi, Mosses, or Hepaticae, whose numbers are consequently quite insignificant.

16 e.g. Species of Veronica, Metrosideros, Loranthus, Olearia, Astelia, Panax, &c.

17 My losses belonging to this category sometimes amounted to one-half of the whole collects. Otago Fungi, p. 14.

18 Vide Bibliography: Toot.

19 Otago Fungi, p. 14.

20 Illustrations of which will be found in the Bibliography.

21 Vide Chapter on "Colonial Sections in National Herbaria."

22 Vide Section on "Comparative Study of Cultivated Forms."

23 Where not otherwise specified, all my remarks, and especially those relating to new species, must be held to refer to the period of my visit to Otago, viz., 1861.

24 Illustrations of New Zealand plants that have already proved hardy in cultivation in Britain will be found in the "Observations on Genera and Species," (e.g., Acaena, Rubus, Veronica.)

25 Vide New Otago Lichens and Fungi, p. 407.

26 e.g., Pteris aquilina, Ophioglossum vulgatum. Lycopodium clavatum, Oxalis corniculata, Sueda maritima. Vide also Otago Ferns, p. 36.

27 Vide "Explanation of Plates."

28 Present Meteorological Observatory.
Latitude – 45° 53' 8". So. Longitude, – 170° 31' 40". E.
Altitude above sea, 550 feet. Distance from sea, 3 miles.

29 Exhibiting the averages for a mean of fifteen years.

30 Dr. Hector refers to the "dry continental climate" of the Wanaka Lake, which could hardly have been expected in any part of New Zealand." The littoral climate of the West coast is, on the other hand, it is said, characterised by a constant excess of moisture. Such local varieties of climate cannot fail to be associated with corresponding local or endemic Floras – sometimes extremely divergent in character – especially as regards the relation to each other of the Cryptogamia and Phaenogamia.

31 Dunedin Lecture on Natural History of Otago, p. 36.

32 Otago Ferns, p. 29. Vide also section on "Physical Geography.

33 In the area, at least, examined by me.

34 In the area, at least, examined by me.

35 Southland was separated as a province on 1st April, 1861. Unless where specially excluded, Southland is considered in this paper what it really is geographically – a portion of Otago.

36 The highest mountains of Otago are the following, which occur between the Wanaka Lake and the west coast, on or near the Canterbury boundary, – viz.: Mount Aspiring, 9,135 or 9,949 feet; and Earnslaw, 9,155, 9,165, or 9,200 feet, (according to various measurements.)

37 The latter – which is presumably the most accurate, because the most recent, measurement – is that of the peak, according to the staff of the Canterbury Geological Survey in 1867.

38 The principal glaciers of Otago are those of Mt. Aspiring, Earnslaw, Alta, Mt. Forbes, Mt. Humboldt, Pembroke Peak, and the Richardson and Darran ranges. Those of Mt Aspiring cover, in the aggregate, twenty-five square miles. One of them is eight miles long; descends to 4,000 feet above the sea level; and is thirty feet thick at its lower or terminal margin. At the head of Milford Sound, glaciers descend to 2,500 feet above the sea. In the same locality, and in many other parts of the Otago alps, extensive snow-banks, or ice-fields-resembling the "Iis-braeen" of Norway – occur, having the outward aspect of glaciers, without, however, the true ice-structure.

39 Being higher on the windy (N.W.) than on the sheltered (S.E.) aspect of the mountains.

40 Frequently with a general slope of 25° to 60°.

41 The principal Fjords of the West Coast of Otago are enumerated on page 9.

42 e.g. 80-100 feet at head of Preservation Inlet; 540 feet vertical height, on the Cleddau river, at head of Thompson Sound; 700 feet in Milford Sound, (Stokes); 1,800 feet, (over face of a mountain,) in Thompson Sound (Symms); 2000 feet on Secretary Island, Thompson Sound, (from a precipice to nearly sea level).

43 4000 to 5000 feet in George Sound: similar to what I have seen in Romsdal, Norway, and among the Swiss Alps.

44 According to J. T. Thomson, C. E., Surveyor-General of Otago, (August, 1867). I have not yet seen any accurate measurement of its length. If the feeders of the Wanaka and Hawea lakes are to be regarded as its tributaries, its total length must be considerably greater than the rough estimate here given.

45 From 4th to 6th December, 1861.

46 All the metamorphic slates and tertiaries, with their debris, are frequently more or less ferruginous.

47 Fuller details on Otago Geology will be found in my Dunedin Lecture, page 5, and Conversazione-programme; as well as in the other geological papers quoted in the "Bibliography."

48 Sand-dunes occur, also, on both sides of the mouth of the Kaikorai. At certain points about Ocean Beach, and the mouths of the Kaikorai and Clutha, there are extensive tracts of level sands; while at other localities, e g., in Shaw's Bay, the beach is shingly.

49 According to the varying proportion of lime and silica they contain.

50 e.g. The Clutha, Mataura, and Taeri rivers.

51 Twenty-one square miles.

52 In this locality, Dr. Hector writes me, (April 1865,) "The strata are most interesting, and embrace all the beds, from the so-called Trias" of Nelson (Richmond). . . "to the Buller and Grey coal measures." Underlying the fossiliferous strata, at the Nuggets, are "conglomerates of granitic rocks, with sandstones containing beds of coal, and fossil plants, (so-called Zamites, &c."

53 The narrower valleys or glens are locally known as "gullies"; the hill-chains of 500 to 3000 feet high, or upwards, as "ranges."

54 Taken, mainly, from the Otago Government Survey maps, to which I had access, through the courtesy of J. T. Thomson, C. E., Director of the Provincial Survey.

55 According to different measurements.

56 According to different measurements.

57 According to different measurements.

ENUMERATION OF PLANTS COLLECTED.

ENUMERATION OF PLANTS COLLECTED.

I. - PHAENOGAMIA.

Clematis – indivisa, Willd. hexasepala, DC. Colensoi, var. rutaefolia, Hook. f.

Ranunculus – lappaceus, Sm., var. multiscapus, Hook. f. macropus, Hook. f.

Drimys-axillaris, Forst.

Nasturtium – *palustre, DC.

Cardamine – *hirsuta, L.

Lepidium – oleraceum, Forst

Viola-filicaulis, Hook. f. Cunninghamii, Hook. f.

Melicytus – ramiflorus, Forst.

Pittosporum – tenuifolium, Banks and Sol.

Claytonia-Australasica, Hook. f.

Montia – *fontana, L.

Hypericum – gramineum, Forst. Japonicum, Thunb.

Plagianthus – betulinus, A. Cunn.

Aristotelia – racemosa, Hook. f.

Elaeocarpus – Hookerianus, Raoul.

Linum – monogynum, Forst.

Geranium – dissectum, L., var. Carolinianum, sub-var. pilosum, Forst. microphyllum, Hook. f.

Pelargonium – Australe, Willd., var. clandestinum, L'Her.

Oxalis – Magellanica, Forst.

Melicope – simplex, A, Cunn.

Pennantia – corymbosa, Forst.

Discaria – Toumatou, Raoul.

Coriaria – ruscifolia, L. thymifolia, Humb.

Carmichaelia – flagelliformis, Col.

Sophora – tetraptera, Aiton, var. microphylla, Jacq.

Rubus – Australis, Forst.; and var. glaber, Hook, f. " cissoides, A. Cunn.

Geum – urbanum, L., var. strictum.

Acaena – Sanguisorbae, Vahl.

Tillaea – verticillaris, DC.

Drosera – binata, Labill.

Haloragis – alata, Jacq.

Myriophyllum – elatinoides, Gaud.

Gunnera – monoica, Raoul.

Leptospermum – scoparium, Forst. ericoides, A. Rich.

Metrosideros – hypericifolia, A. Cunn. lucida, Menzies.

Myrtus – obcordata, Hook. f.

Fuchsia – excorticata, Linn. f. procumbens, R. Cunn.

Epilobium – alsinoides, A. Cunn. rotundifolium, Forst. junceum, Forst. pubens, A. Rich, macropus, Hook.

Mesembryanthemum – Australe, Sol.

Tetragonia – expansa, Murray.

Hydrocotyle – elongata, A. Cunn.

Aciphylla – squarrosa, Forst. **Colensoi, Hook, f., Handb. FI. N. Z, p. 92; vide also Plate 1, and "Observations on Genera and Species," in present memoir.

Ligusticum – intermedium, Hook. f. aromaticum, Banks and Sol.

Angelica – Gingidium, Hook. f. geniculata, Hook. f.

Daucus – brachiatus, Sieber.

Panax – crassifolium, Dene, and Planch. Colensoi, Hook. f.

* Species that are also British are printed in "Italics" ** those that are new to science, in "Egyptian." Vide Foot Note p. 17.

Schefflera – digitata, Forst.

Griselinia – lucida, Forst.

Loranthus – Colensoi, Hook. f. micranthus, Hook. f.

Tupeia – Antarctica, Cham, and Schl.

Viscum – **Lindsayi, Oliver. Handb. Fl. N.Z., p. 108; vide also plate 2, and "Observations on Genera and Species," in present memoir.

Coprosma – lucida, Forst. rotundifolia, A. Cunn. acerosa, A. Cunn. linariifolia, Hook. f. parviflora, Hook. f.

Galium – umbrosum, Forst.

Asperula – perpusilla, Hook. f.

Olearia – nitida, Hook. f. Ilicifolia, Hook. f. Avicenniaefolia, Hook. f. virgata, Hook. f., and var. y.

Celmisia – **Lindsayi, Hook. f. Handb. Fl. N.Z., p. 132, vide also plate 3, and "Observations on Genera and Species," in present memoir, longifolia, Cass.

Vittadinia – Australis, A. Rich.

Lagenophora – Forsteri, DC. pinnatifida, Hook. f.

Cotula – Coronopifolia, L. dioica, Hook. f.

Craspedia – fimbriata, DC.

Cassinia – fulvida, Hook. f. Vauvilliersii, Hook. f.

Gnaphalium – bellidioides, Hook. f. trinerve, Forst. *luteo – album, L. involucratum, Forst. collinum, Labill.

Erechtites – arguta, DC. quadridentata, DC.

Senecio – bellidioides, Hook. f. lautus, Forst.

Microseris – Forsteri, Hook. f.

Crepis – **Novae – Zelandiae, Hook. f. Handb. Fl. N.Z., p. 164; vide also plate 3, and "Observations on Genera and Species," in present memoir.

Taraxacum – *Dens-leonis, Desf.

Sonchus – *oleraceus, L.

Wahlenbergia – gracilis, A. Rich. saxicola, A. DC.

Gaultheria – antipoda, Forst. rupestris, Br., var. Colensoi, Hook. f.

Leucopogon – Frazeri, A Cunn.

Dracophyllum – longifolium, Br.

Myrsine – Urvillei, A. DC,

Samolus – littoralis, Br.

Parsonsia – albiflora, Raoul. rosea, Raoul.

Myosotis – Antarctica, Hook. f. capitata, Hook. f.

Convolvulus – Tuguriorum, Forst. *Soldanella, L.

Solanum – aviculare, Forst.

Mimulus – radicans, Hook. f.

Veronica – salicifolia, Forst. elliptica, Forst.

Myoporum – laetum, Forst.

Salicornia – Indica, Hook. f.

Polygonum – *aviculare, L., var. Dryandri, Spr.

Muhlenbeckia – adpressa, Lab.

Rumex – flexuosus, Forst.

Pimelea – prostrata, Vahl.

Euphorbia – glauca, Forst.

Fagus – Menziesii, Hook f.

Epicarpurus – microphyllus, Raoul.

Urtica – ferox, Forst.

Parietaria – debilis, Forst.

Libocedrus – Bidwillii, Hook. f.

Podocarpus – Totara, A. Cunn. spicata, Br. Dacrydioides, A. Rich.

Dacrydium – Cupressinum, Soland.

Corysanthes – macrantha, Hook. f.

Microtis – porrifolia, Sprengel.

Pterostylis – Banksii, Br.; and var. Australis, Hook. L

Thelymitra – longifolia, Forst.

Prasophyllum – Colensoi, Hook. L

Libertia – grandiflora. Sweet.

Typha – *angustifolia, L.

Potamogeton – *heterophyllus, Hook. L

Ruppia – *maritima, L.

Rhipogonum – scandens, Forst.

Cordyline – Australis, Hook. f.

Astelia – nervosa, Banks and Sol.

Arthropodium – candidum, Raoul.

Anthericum – Hookeri, Col.

Phormium – tenax, Forst.

Juncus – Australis, Hook. f. vaginatus, Br. 1 planifolius, Br. *bufonius, L.

Luzula – *campestris, DC.; and var. picta, A. Rich. Oldfieldii, Hook. f.

Leptocarpus – simplex, A. Rich.

Eleocharis – gracilis, Br.

Isolepis – nodosa, Br. riparia, Br.

Desmoschoenus – spiralis, Hook. f.

Lepidosperma – tetragona, Labill.

Uncinia – Australis, Pers. Banksii, Boott.

Carex – virgata, Sol., and var. secta, Boott. Gaudichaudiana, Kunth. ternaria, Forst. testacea, Solander. lucida, Boott. Forsteri, Wahlenberg. trifida, Cavanilles.

Hierochloe – redolens, Br.

Echinopogon – ovatus, Palisot.

Dichelachne – crinita, Hook. f.

Agrostis – aemula, Br. quadriseta, Br.

Arundo – conspicua, Forst.

Danthonia – semi-annularis, Br. and var. pilosa, Br. Cunninghamii, Hook. f.

Deschampsia – *caespitosa, Palisot. Trisetum – Antarcticum, Trinius.

Poa – imbecilla, Forst. breviglumis, Hook. f. anceps, Forst. **Lindsayi, Hook. f. Handb. FI. N. Z, page 340; vide also plate 4, and "Observations on Genera and Species," in present memoir. **Colensoi, Hook. f. Handb. Fl. N.Z., page 338. Australis, Br., var. laevis., Br.

Festuca – littoralis, Br. *duriuscula, L.

Triticum – scabrum, Br.

II. – CRYPTOGAMIA.

I. – FILICES.

Cyathea – dealbata, Swartz. medullaris, Swartz.

Hymenophyllum – multifidum, Swartz. Javanicum, Sprengel. Handb. Fl. N.Z., p. 747. (crispatum, Wallich,)

Adiantum – affine, Willd.

Hypolepis – Millefolium, Hook. tenuifolia, Bernhardi.

Pellaea – rotundifolia, Forst.

Pteris – aquilina, L., var. esculenta, Forst. incisa, Thunb.

Lomaria – procera, Sprengel; var. major, Hook. " minor, Br. fluviatilis, Sprengel. membranacea, Colenso, lanceolata, Sprengel. alpina, Sprengel.

Lomaria – discolor, Willd.

Asplenium – obtusatum, Forst. lucidum, Forst.; and var. Lyallii, Hook. f. flabellifolium, Cavanilles. polyodon, Forst. bulbiferum, Forst.; and var. laxa, Br. " tripinnata, Hook. f. flaccidum, Forst.

Aspidium – aculeatum, Swartz, var. vestitum, Hook. Richardi, Hook.

Nephrodium – hispidum, Hook.

Polypodium – Australe, Mettenius.

Grammitidis, Br. pennigerum, Forst. rupestre, Br. Billiardieri, Br.

Leptopteris – Hymenophylloides, Presl.

Ophioglossum – vulgatum, L., var. costatum, Br.

Botrychium – cicutarium, Swartz, var. Virginicum, Hook. f.

11. – LYCOPODIACEAE.

Lycopodium – Billardieri, Spreng. clavatum, L., var. Magellanium, Swartz, volubile, Forst.

III. – MARSILEACEAE.

Azolla – rubra, Br.

IV. – MUSCI.

Dicranum – Menziesii, Tayl. introflexum, Hedw. dicarpon, Nees.

Didymodon – *purpureus, Hedw.

Leucobryum – candidum, Hampe.

Syntrichia – princeps, De Not.

Grimmia – **ptychophylla, Mitten, Linds., New Otago Cryptogams, p. 280. **basaltica, Mitten. Handb. Fl. N.Z., p. 125. tricbophylla, Grev.

Webera – nutans, Hedw.

Bryum – chrysoneuron, G. Muller. campylothecium, Tayl.

Hypnum – tenuifolium, Hedw. aristatum, Hook. f. and Wils. chrysogaster, C. Muller, aciculare, Schw. muriculatum, Hook. f. and Wils.

Meteorium – molle, Hedw.

Trachyloma – planifolium, Brid. arcuatum, Hedw. Menziesii, Hook, comosum, Schw.

Isothecium – Arbuscula, Hook.; and var. clandestinum, Hook. f. and Wils. ramulosum, Mitten, angustatum, Mitten, spininervium, Hook.

Hookeria – nigella, Hook. f. and Wils.

Neckera – laevigata, Hook. f. and Wils.

Trachypus – Hornschuchii, Mitten. flexicaulis, Tayl.

Leskea – hispida, Hook. i. and Wils. hastata, C. Muller.

Rhacopilum – strumiferum, C. Muller.

Fissideus – rigidulus, Hook. f. and Wils.

Rhizogonium – bifarium, Hook.

Hypopterygium – scutigerum, Beauv. pallens, Hook. f. and Wils.

Cyathophorum – bulbosum, Hedw.

Pogonatum – aloides, Brid. Polytrichum – *commune, Hedw. tortile, Swartz.

Polytrichadelphus – Magellanicus, Hedw. Dawsonia – superba, Grev.

V. – HEPATICAE.

Plagiochila – fasciculata, Lindbg. arbuscula, Lindbg.

Trichocolea – lanata, Hook. f. and Nees.

Polyotus – palpebrifolius, Hook.

Madotheca – Stangeri, Gottsche.

Frullania – falciloba, Hook. f. and Tayl.

Androcryphia – confluens, Tayl.

Sarcomitrium – prehensile, Tayl.

Symphyogyna – flabellata, Hook.

Marchantia – tabularis, Nees.

Anthoceros – *loevis L.

VI. – LICHENES.

Collema – *leucocarpum, Tayl.

Sphaerophoron – tenerum, Laur.

Cladonia – *pyxidata, L. *fimbriata, Hoffm. *degenerans, Flk.; and var. *euphorea, Ach. " *haplotea, Ach. " lepidota, Ach. " erratica, Linds, *rangiferina, Hoffm. var. pumila A cb. aggregata, Sw.

Stereocaulon – mixtum, Nyl. ramulosum, Nyl. corticatulum, Nyl,

Usnea – *barbata, Fr.; and var. *florida, L. " *plicata, Fr. " *hirta, Fr." *articulata, Fr.

Ramalina – *calicaris, Ach.; and var. *fastigiata, Fr. " Eckloni, Spr. " linearis, Sw. " geniculata, Bab. *scopulorum, Ach.

Peltigera – *rufescens, Hoffm.

Nephroma – Antarcticum, Jacq., var. tenue, Nyl.

Stictina – dissimilis, Nyl. *crocata, L. *fuliginosa, Dicks.

Sticta – latifrons, Rich. filix, Hoffm. Linds., New Otago L. and F., p. 422. *damoecornis, Ach.,var. **subcaperata, Nyl., Lich. N.Z., p. 247; Linds., New Otago L. and F., p. 422, pl. xxix., figs. 34 – 6. **subcoriacea, Nyl., Lich. N.Z., p. 247; Linds., New Otago L. and F., p. 420, pl. xxix., figs. 34 – 6. Urvillei, Del.; and var. flavicans, Hook. " Colensoi, Bab. orygmaea, Ach. rubella, Hook, and Tayl. granulata, Bab. dissimulata, Nyl. var. multifida, Laur. fossulata, Duf.; and var. Richardi, Mont, physciospora, Nyl. Freycinetii, Del. **episticta, Nyl., Lich. N.Z., p. 248; Linds., New Otago L. and F., p. 421.

Ricasolia – coriaceae Hook, and Tayl. *herbacea, DN., var. **adscripta, Nyl., Lich. N.Z., p. 248; Linds., New Otago L. and F., p. 420, pl. xxix., fig. 33. Montagnei, Bab.

Parmelia – *perlata, Ach.; and var. *ciliata, Seiner. *perforata, Ach. *physodes, Ach., var. enteromorpha, Ach.

Parmelia – *pertusa, Schrank. *saxatilis, Ach.; and var. *omphalodes, Fr. " panniformis, Schaer. *laevigata, Ach.; and var. *sinuosa, Sm. *olivacea, Ach. *caperata, Ach. *conspersa, Ach. *Mougeotii, Schaer.

Physcia – *chrysophthalma, L. *parietina, L. *stellaris, Fr.; and var. radiata, Nyl. *coesia, Fr. **plinthiza, Nyl., Lich. N.Z., p. 249; Linds., New Otago L. and F, p. 417, pl. xxix., fig. 32.

Umbilicaria – *polyphylla, Hffm.

Pannaria – **immixta, Nyl., Lich. N.Z., p. 249; Linds., New Otago L. and F., p. 418. pl. xxix., fig. 28.**gymnocheila, Nyl., Lich. N.Z., p. 250; Linds., New Otago L. and F., p. 418, pl. xxix., fig. 29. leucosticta, Tuck. *nigra, Huds.

Psoroma – sphinctrinum, Mont.; and var. **pholidotoides, Nyl., Lich. N.Z., p. 250; Linds., New Otago L. and F., p. 419, pl. xxix., figs. 30-1.

Placopsis – *gelida, L. **perrugosa, Nyl., Lich. N.Z., p. 250; Linds., New Otago L. and F., p. 419, pl. xxix., fig. 17.

Squamaria – *galactina, Ach., var. dispersa, Pers.

Placodium – *murorum, DC.

Lecanora – *vitellina, Ach. *aurantiaca, Lightf, var. *erythrella, Ach. pyracea, Ach. **homologa, Nyl., Lich. N.Z., p. 251; Linds., New Otago L and F., p. 414, pl. xxix., figs. 13-4.

Lecanora – **peloleuca Nyl, Lich. N.Z., p. 251; Linds., New Otago L. and F., p. 414, pl. xxix, fig. 15. **thiomela, Nyl., Lich., N.Z., p. 252; Linds., New Otago L and F., p. 414. pl. xxix, fig. 16. umbrina, Ehrh. ferruginea, Huds. *cinerea, Ach. *atra, Ach. punicea, Ach. chrysosticta, Tayl. *parella, Ach. *glaucoma, Ach. *simplex, Dav.

Urceolaria – *scruposa, Ach. stictica, Krb.

Pertusaria – *communis, DC. *velata. Turn. **perrimosa, Nyl., Lich. N.Z., p. 253; Linds., New Otago L. and F., p. 418, pl. xxix, figs. 26-7. **perfida, Nyl., Lich. N.Z., p. 253; Linds., New Otago L. and F., p. 417, pl. xxix, figs. 24-5.

Thelotrema – *lepadinum, Ach. monosporum, Nyl.

Coenogonium – implexum, Nyl.

Lecidea – furfuracea, Pers. subsimilis, Nyl. *sabuletorum, Flk. trachona, Plot., var. **marginatula, Nyl., Lich. N.Z., p. 254; Linds., New Otago L. and F., p. 413. **allotropa, Nyl., Lich. N.Z., p. 254; Linds., New Otago L. and F., p. 413. *coarctata, Ach., var. **exposita, Nyl., Lich. N.Z., p. 254; Linds., New Otago L. and F., p. 413, pl. xxix, fig. 12. **melanotropa, Nyl., Lich. N.Z., p. 255; Linds., New Otago L. and F,, p. 412, pl. xxix, fig. 10.

Lecidea – marginiflexa, Tayl. millegrana, Tayl. *pulverea, Borr., var. Laurocerasi, Del. **leucothalamia, Nyl.; and var. **melachroa, Nyl., Lich. N.Z., p. 255; Linds., New Otago L. and F., p. 413. **Otagensis, Nyl., Lich. N.Z., p. 255; Linds., New Otago L. and F., p. 411, pl. xxix,, figs. 7-8. arceutina, Ach. **amphitropa, Nyl., Lich. N.Z., p. 256; Linds., New Otago L. and F., p. 412, p. xxix, fig. 11. *parasema, Ach.; and var. *latypea, Ach., " *enteroleuca, Ach. *contigua, Fr.; and var. *crustulata, Ach. *lapicida, Fr., var. declinans, Nyl. *fusco – atra, Ach. *petroea, Flot. *stellulata, Tayl. *myriocarpa, DC. *lenticularis, Ach. *grossa, Pers. **flavido-atra, Nyl., Lich. N.Z., p. 257; Linds., New Otago L. and F., p. 412, pl. xxix, fig. 9. *geographica, Ach.

Abrothallus – **Curreyi, Linds., New Otago L. and F., p. 409, pl. xxix, figs. 1-5. *oxyspora, Tul.; Linds., New Otago L. and F., p. 410, pl. xxix, fig. 6.

Melanospora – **Otagensis, Linds., New Otago Melanospora, p 426, pl. v., figs. 7-12; New Otago L. and F., p. 411.

Opegrapha – **agelaeoides, Nyl., Lich. N.Z., p. 257; Linds., New Otago L. and F., p. 416, pl. xxix, fig 19. **spodopolia, Nyl., Lich. N.Z., p. 257; Linds., New Otago L. and F., p. 416, pl. xxix, fig. 20.

Opegrapha – **sub – effigurans, Nyl., Lich. N.Z., p. 258; Linds., New Otago L. and F., p. 415, pl. xxix, fig. 18.

Platygrapha – **longifera, Nyl., Lich. N.Z., p. 258; Linds., New Otago L. and F., p. 417, pl. xxix, figs. 22-23.

Arthonia – excedens, Nyl. **platygraphella, Nyl., Lich. N.Z., p. 258; Linds., New Otago L. and F., p. 417, pl. xxix, fig. 21. conspicua, Nyl.

Verrucaria – *pallida, Ach. *nitida, Schrad.; and var. nitidella, Flk. glabrat a, Ach. *epidermidis, Ach., var. *punctiformis, Ach. *maura, Wahl.

VII. – FUNGO-LICHENES.

Microthelia – **perrugosaria, Linds., New Otago L. and F., p. 437, pl. xxx, figs. 23-28. **Cargilliana, Linds., New Otago L. and F., p. 439, pl. xxx, figs. 31-34.* **t Ramalinaria, Linds., New Otago L. and F., p. 440, pl. xxx, figs. 44-46.

Phymatopsis – **dubia, Linds., New Otago L. and F., p. 422, pl. xxx, figs. 36-42.

VIII. – FUNGI.

Agaricus – hypnorum, Fr., var. sphagnicola, Currey.

Polyporus – *adustus, Fr., var. *igniarius, Fr. borealis, Fr. sanguineus, Fr.

Stereum – *hirsutum, Fr. lobatum, Fr.

Corticium – ochroleucum, Fr., var. Ileodictyon – gracile, Berk.

Geaster – *fimbriatus, Fr.

Lycoperdon – *giganteum, Batsch. *coelatum, Bull.

AEcidium – **Otagense, Linds., New Otago L. and F., p. 430, pl. xxx, figs. 61-74.

Peziza – *lignyota, Fr.

Helotium – *aeruginosum, Fr.

Patellaria – *atrata, Fr.; Linds., New Otago L. and F., p. 427, pl. xxx, figs. 16-17.

Hypoxylon – *concentrieum. Bolt.

Nectria – **Otagensis, Curr., Linds., New Otago L. and F., p. 428, pl. xxx, figs. 53-60.

Sphaeria – **Lindsayana, Curr., Linds., New Otago L. and F., p. 423, pl. xxx, figs. 1-7. **Otagensis, Linds., New Otago L. and F., p. 425, pl. xxx, figs. 8-15. **Martiniana, Linds., New Otago L. and F., p. 427, pl. xxx, figs. 18-22.

Dothidea – **Otagensis, Linds. [Celidium dubium, Linds., New Otago L. and F., p. 449, pl. xxx, figs. 47-52.; Addenda to N.Z. Cryptogams, p. 201.]

IX. – ALGAE, (MARINE.)

Cystophora – retroflexa, J. Ag. Lyallii, Harv.

Fucodium – chondrophyllum, J. Ag.

Hormosira – Banksii, Ag.

D'Urvillaea – utilis, Bory.

Macrocystis – pyrifera, Ag.

Mesogloia – intestinalis, Harv.

Chordaria – sordida, Bory.

Chondria – macrocarpa, Harv.

Polyzonia – cuneifolia, Mont.

Bostrychia – arbuscula, Harv.

Polysiphonia – Lyallii, Hook. f. and Harv. botryocarpa, Hook. f. and Harv.

Laurencia – virgata, J. Ag.

Gracilaria – coriacea, Harv.

Plocamium – angustum, Hook. f. and Harv.

Rhodymenia – epymenioides, Harv.

Gymnogongrus – furcellatus, Ag.

Callophyllis – Hombroniana, Kutz. erosa, Hook. f. and Harv.

Gigartina – radula, J. Ag. Uvida, J. Ag.

Iridaea – lusoria, Harv.

Nemastoma – Daviesii, Harv.

Ptilota – formosissima, Mont.

Ceramium – * rubrum, Ag.

Porphyra – *laciniata, Ag.

Enteromorpha – *compressa, Grev. intestinalis. Link.

Codium – *tomentosum, Ag.

Conferva – Darwinii, Kutz.

III. – PROTOPHYTA.

I. – PALMELLACEAE.

Palmella – *cruenta, Ag.

II. – DIATOMACEAE, (Fresh – water.)

Epithemia – *gibba, Ehr. *musculus, Kutz. *Westermanni, Ehr. *Zebra, Ehr. *turgida, Ehr. *Sorex, Kutz.

Eunotia – *gracilis, Sm.

Himantidium – *pectinate, Kutz. *bidens, Ehr.

Meridion – *circulare, Grev. *constrictum, Ralfs.

Denticula – *tenuis, Kutz.

Odontidium – *mutabile, Sm.

Fragilaria – *capucina, Desm.

Nitzschia – *parvula. Sm. ? *Amphioxys, Ehr. *minutissima, Sm. *spathulata, Breb.

Homoeocladia – *sigmoidea, Sm.

Synedra – *minutissima, Kutz. *radians, Kutz. tenuis, Kutz. *delicatissima, Sm. *tenera, Sm. *Ulna, Ehr., var. q. Sm. acuta, Ehr. *fasciculata, Ag.

Cymatopleura – apiculata, Sm.

Tryblionella – *gracilis, Sm. debilis, Rylands MSS. *angustata, Sm. *levidensis, Sm.

Surirella – *biseriata, Breb. *linearis, Sm. *splendida, Ehr. *tenera, Greg. *ovata, Kutz. *minuta, Breb. elegans, Ehr.

Campylodiscus – *cribrosus, Sm.

Diatomella – *Balfouriana, Grev.

Cyclotella – *operculata, Kutz. *Kutzingiana, Thw.? *punctata, Sm. minutula, Kutz.

Hyalodiscus – subtilis, Bail.

Melosira – *sub flexilis, Kutz. *varians, Ag. *orichalcea, Mert.

Actinoptychus – undulatus, Kutz.

Cocconeis – *Pediculus Ehr. *Placentula, Ehr.

Achnanthidium – *lanceolatum, Breb. *lineare, Sm. *coarctatum, Breb. *trinode, Arn.

Achnanthes – *exilis, Kutz.

Cymbella – *cuspidata, Kutz. **Lindsayana, Grev., New So. Pacific Diatoms – Trans. Bot. Soc. Edin., vol. viii, p. 234, pl. iii, figs. 5-8; Linds., N.Z. Protophyta, p. 7. obtusiuscula, Kutz. *Helvetica, Kutz.

Cocconema – *lanceolatum, Ehr.

Amphora – *ovalis, Kutz.

Gomphonema – *constrictum, Ehr. *curvatum, Kutz. *cristatum, Ralfs. Augur, Ehr. *tenellum Kutz.

Gomphonema – *intricatum, Kutz. *Vibrio, Ehr. *dichotomum, Kutz. *aequale, Greg.

Navicula – *loevissima, Kutz. *Cocconeiformis, Greg. *Claviculus, Greg. *elliptica, Kutz. *inflata, Kutz. *pusilla, Sm. *crassinervia, Breb. *cryptocephala, Kutz. *affinis, Ehr. *rhomboidee, Ehr. *lanceolata, Ag. *cuspidata, Kutz., var. *Craticula, Ehr. *scita, Sm. *firma, Kutz. *tumida, Breb.

Pinnularia – Sm. viridis, *acuminata, Sm. *peregrina, Ehr.

Pinnularia – *radiosa, Sm. *viridula, Sm. *Stauroneiformis, Sm. *gibba, Ehr. *mesolepta, Ehr. *interrupta, Sm. *subcapitata, Greg. *borealis, Ehr.

Stauroneis – constricta, Ehr. *anceps, Ehr. *linearis, Ehr. platystoma, Ehr. *Phoenicenteron, Nitz. *gracilis, Ehr. **scaphulaeformis, Grev., New and rare Diatoms, Jour. Micros. Science, July 1866, p. 85, pl. ix, fig. 32. **rotundata, Grev., New and rare Diatoms, Jour. Micros. Science, July 1866, p. 85, pl. ix, figs. 30-31.

Mastogloia – *lanceolata, Thw.

Colletonema – *vulgare, Thw. *neglectum, Thw.

NUMERICAL ABSTRACT.

* Otago Flora, p. 253.
* Otago Flora, p. 254.
* Otago Lichens, p. 357.
* New Zealand Protophyta, p. 9.

My collection was too fragmentary and limited to warrant generalisations as to the Otago Flora. But the data are quite sufficient to justify my indicating – as facts of special interest to the local botanist – the comparatively large proportion of species –

1. New to science – collected casually, by a traveller, in the earliest settled district of Otago, – that which includes the immediate vicinity of the capital. This number is greatest by far among the Fungi and Lichens, simply, in all probability, because these groups of Cryptogams had been previously less collected and studied in New Zealand than any other section of its Flora.

2. New to Otago, and in a great measure also to New Zealand.

3. That are also British.

CONTINUITY OF VARIATION IN RELATION TO THE LIMITATION OF SPECIES.

From a large mass of "Observations on Genera and Species," I select a few, – which may illustrate the following points of interest to the student of the New Zealand Flora: –

1. DEFECTIVE DEFINITIONS OF SPECIES AND VARIETIES. 58 – In studying New Zealand plants, it constantly occurred to me to find it difficult or impossible to refer individuals to the book-species or varieties at present established. In many genera there is such a continuity of variation 59 – such a chain of passage – forms connecting varieties and species – so great a variation of the individual from the species or type – that limitation at all is either set at defiance, or, at least, the limits assigned in published Floras are much too trivial, precise, and minute. According to my experience, there are comparatively few genera of New Zealand plants containing more than one species, – the constituent groups of which are established on a basis, which is likely to be permanent or satisfactory. In particular, I have experienced great difficulties in assigning individual plants to their book-species or varieties in the following genera: –

Podocarpus, Libocedrus, and Phyllocladus, – among Coniferae.
Cordyline, Phormium, Astelia, – among Liliaceae.
Sophora and Carmichaelia, – among Leguminosae.
Fuchsia and Epilobium, – among Onagrariae.
Olearia, Senecio, and Gnaphalium, – among Compositae.
Gaultheria and Dracophyllum, – among Ericeae.
Juncus and Luzula, – among the Junceae.
Poa and other genera of Gramineae.
Lomaria, Asplenium, Polypodium, and other genera of Filices.

Panax.
Pittosporum.
Aristotelia.
Libertia.
Coprosma.
Parsonsia.
Potamogeton.
Carex.
Wahlenbergia.
Veronica.
Muhlenbeckia.
Tetragonia.
Pimelea.
Geranium.
Acaena.
Coriaria.
Clematis.
Hypericum.

Not only do I experience difficulty in separating species, but in some cases of dissociating, on sufficient grounds, genera 60 (e.g. in the case of Podocarpus and Dacrydium). The species of all these, and many other New Zealand genera, appear to me to require revision by the local botanist; the result of whose researches will probably be a considerable reduction in the number of species, with the establishment of more comprehensive and permanent characters of the types, 61 which are ultimately selected as representative.

2. The Nomenclature of inconstant and ill-defined Varieties. – I am strongly of opinion that where plants are extremely variable in character, and where there is no good ground for the separate nomenclature of varieties or forms, – such as conspicuous differences in chemical or other properties, or in economical applications – it would suffice for all the purposes of science and the student, to indicate in a general way the chief directions or forms of variation. 62 This I have resolved to do in a work on the British Lichens, now in preparation. In that work I will have occasion to enter fully on the consideration of variation of species in relation to classification and nomenclature; and inasmuch as the remarks I shall have there to make will apply, mutatis mutandis, to all families of the vegetable kingdom, I do not pursue the subject further here.

58 Vide Otago Ferns, p. 35.

59 Otago Ferns, p. 36: Otago Glumaceae, p. 66.

60 Vide Otago Ferns, p. 37.

61 Ibid., p. 38.

62 Ibid., p. 37.

OBSERVATIONS ON GENERA AND SPECIES.

OBSERVATIONS ON GENERA AND SPECIES.

THE following observations consist mainly of field-notes on living plants in their native habitats; or of the results of repeated examination of my Otago Herbarium, since my return home in 1862.

The subject of these observations, for the most part, is the variation of the individual in relation to the species – whether in the wild or cultivated state. But they include, also, details bearing on geographical distribution; economical applications; Maori and settler's nomenclature; and acclimatisation in Britain.

The instances of variation of species would doubtless have been much more numerous and more marked had I had, on the one hand, the same facility of access to large suites of New Zealand plants in public Herbaria – especially Kew 63 – that I had to my own Herbarium; and on the other, of access to living specimens over larger areas, and in a greater diversity of habitats.

I. – Genus ACIPHYLLA.

Until the publication of Dr. Hooker's "Handbook," there existed utter confusion as to the New Zealand species and varieties of this genus. In the "Flora Novae Zelandiae" only one well established species was recognised, viz., A. squarrosa, which included the very different plant now distinguished as A. Colensoi. Two varieties were named angustifolia and latifolia – depending on the different breadth of leaf – a character, however, which is inconstant and confusing. Sir David Munro, of Nelson, recognised at least two species – what is now called after him A. Munroi, Hook. f., in addition to the common A. squarrosa; while the Otago settlers believe that there are at least three common species in the eastern and lowland districts of Otago, – species characterised by different size and colour (respectively greenish and brownish). Characters of such a kind are most fallacious; for in regard to size, it varies greatly in the same species, – the commoner species being sometimes much taller than a man, while they are occasionally scarcely higher than a hand. Elevation above the sea has much to do with this variation as to size, – the smaller forms being generally the most alpine, though it also appears that the commoner species frequently attain their greatest development at considerable elevations only. As regards colour, it varies with age-

tending to become yellowish or brownish in old plants, while it is of a fresher green in young ones. In the Herbarium, the plant in all its parts – especially, perhaps, the fruit – generally acquires more or less of a yellow, brownish, or olive hue. At least five New Zealand species are now recognised – all of which appear to occur in Otago – the most of them found only, or chiefly, in alpine or sub-alpine districts – ascending occasionally as high as 7,500 feet.

The larger species are familiar to the settler as "Spear-grass," or "Bayonette-grass," "Wild" or "Bloody-Spaniard," in allusion to their very rigid, strong, poniard-like, sharp-pointed leaves, which are disposed around the flowering stem like a chevaux-de-frise, and which readily pierce the clothes or skin of men or animals coming roughly in contact with them. Hence, a "Spear-grass Scrub" on the hill ranges is frequently most formidable, if not impenetrable, to men and horses, though it forms one of the favourite hunting grounds of the Wild Pig, which feasts daintily on the thick, succulent root. In the Matukituki valley, "Bayonette-grass" forms an undergrowth in a dense scrub of prickly thorn, [Discaria Toumatou,] while it is very rare in the forests of the West Coast. It springs up where burned "Scrub" is succeeded by grass, and the latter is, in its turn, fired – on the pasture ranges of the interior, (Sullivan.) The "Spear-grass" must be regarded as one of the peculiarities of the Otago Flora; but like so many of the indigenous herbaceous plants of the Province, notwithstanding its stoutness and hardiness, it is rapidly disappearing before advancing colonisation, and is already all but unknown in the eastern, settled, lowland districts (e.g., in the vicinity of Dunedin.)

The larger species are aromatic in all their parts, and the young flower-stem, when cut across, yields copiously a viscid gum-resin, also aromatic, but tasteless.

Species 1. – A. Colensoi, Hook f., 64 Handb. Fl. N.Z., p. 92. (A. grandis, Colenso; and Hook. f. MSS. in my Herb, and in litt.; apparently corresponding, in part at least, to var. latifolia of A. squarrosa, Fl. N.Z.); the "Taramea" of the Maoris, (Colenso.) North shoulder of Saddlehill, immediately above Renwick's Station, – sparingly, and mostly as isolated individuals; on the road-side up to Greenisland Church; within 6-10 miles of Dunedin, and at elevations under 500 feet above the sea; all, moreover, in flower in December, (W. L. L.) Tapanui and Tuapeka ranges, (Buchanan.)

Pre-eminently the "Nemo me impune lacessit" of Otago, the largest, handsomest, and most formidable of all the New Zealand Aciphyllae. I have examined all the New Zealand forms of A. Colensoi contained in the Kew Herbarium, and have thus had an opportunity of comparing my Otago plant with specimens from Nelson and Canterbury, as well as with all the New Zealand conditions of A. squarrosa. It is evident that the latter and A. Colensoi are widely different plants, – the chief distinguishing features being the refraction of the bracts (middle leaflet) in A. squarrosa, which gives the plant a totally different aspect from

A. Colensoi. Of A. Colensoi there appear to be several varieties, – but none of them such, in my opinion, as to require separate nomenclature. The chief directions or forms of variation are the following:

In some specimens from Nelson (Bidwill), the whole plant is much broader and shorter than my Otago plant, the foliage less rigid, the leaflets spiny, thick, and grooved. The whole plant, moreover, becomes brown or olive in the Herbarium. In some Canterbury and Nelson forms, the whole plant is only a few inches high, or the leaves only a few inches long. In some of the small states, the plant is even somewhat delicate. The flower-peduncles are 2-2 1/2" long-far exceeding sometimes the bracts in length; while in my plant they are under 1" (inferior in length to the bracts). The spiked inflorescence in my plant is close, (sometimes 14" long,) much narrower, and more spear-like, than in Canterbury and Nelson forms, in which it is very lax, – a difference which cannot be due to the involution of the constituent umbels in drying. Bract in my specimens 1/2 - 3/4" long. Wings of fruit (carpels) very distinct in Canterbury fruited specimens, (my plant was found only in flower.) In age the stylopodium remains sometimes prominent and rigid. In the Herbarium the whole plant sometimes becomes brownish-yellow, and the fruit glossy brown or blackish-brown. The leaf in my plant seems to me abruptly to unequally pinnate, – the pinnae linear-lanceolate, very rigid and cartilaginous, 6-7", – the lower ones 13-14" – long.

The variations, therefore, refer mainly to general height and habit of plant; the length of the leaf, flower-peduncles and bracts; and the laxity or closeness of the inflorescence.

Haast speaks of A. Colensoi as "peculiar to the alpine scenery of New Zealand;" its leaves as very hard and sharp, and often three feet long. It is very abundant in the neighbourhood of the Ashburton Glacier (Canterbury Alps.) "My party," he remarks, "both men and horses, suffered greatly from its punctures, body and limbs being covered with blood when working our way through it." 65 Familiar to the shepherds of Canterbury as "Bloody Spaniard." If it be really the same species, it is interesting to notice its distribution from nearly the sea level, (in the Greenisland district of Otago,) up to the Glacier line, (5,500 feet on the Canterbury Alps.) On the Nelson mountains, Munro states that it does not occur below 2,000 feet.

Species 2. – A. squarrosa, Forst. – (corresponding apparently to variety angustifolia, Fl. N.Z.) The "Papaii" of the North Island Maoris, (Colenso); the "Kuri-kuri" of those of the South Island, (Lyall). On the Great South Hoad, near Fairfield Farm, Saddlehill, December, in flower; inflorescence about 40" long: W. L. L. On the hills between Half-way Bush and the North Taeri,

(Martin). Rare in the districts around Dunedin, and rapidly disappearing, where-ever settlements have made any progress.

This species appears to occur at lower elevations than the preceding generally does, though there is considerable contrariety of statement on this head, – a contrariety which I attribute partly to the circumstance that the two species in question are usually confounded by the settler. If we may accept the testimony of the Government Surveyors, and the run-holders of the interior, of Otago, the plant is to be regarded as usually sub-alpine, – growing frequently in great luxuriance in the midst of snow on the mountains, and attaining, indeed, its maximum development only at considerable elevations, – in the region known to the settler as that of the "snow-grasses," where the Fagus-forest and scrub disappear, and where snow lies longest during the winter. Munro evidently considers the present species as a plant of much lower levels than A. Colensoi; for while the latter is represented as not appearing in Nelson below 2000 feet, A. squarrosa is said not to occur above it. Moreover, he recognises two forms of the latter, one of which, with a flower stem of eight feet high, is found only below 1000 feet. My Otago plants occurred under 200 feet above the sea level; but it is quite probable the species, like most species of the genus, ascends the mountains to a height of 3000 or 4000 feet in Otago. Munro also describes A. squarrosa as inferior in size to A. Colensoi; but I supect this difference in size is more apparent than real, and is due to the inferior breadth of the leaf, and the long, slender, refracted, appressed, spinous middle bract-leaflets.

I examined all the forms of this species contained in the Kew Herbarium, contrasting them more especially with those of A. Colensoi. The most striking differences relate to the breadth of the leaf and the rigidity of its spinous apex, and more especially to the character of the middle bract-leaflets, which look like a dense mass of spines surrounding the infloresence, broken downwards and backward, and crushed inwards as if by some general and rough pressure applied uniformly on all sides. The bracts are sometimes 5" long, and the lateral leaflets comparatively membranous: the stem leaflets very narrow in proportion to their length.

A most characteristic figure is given in Plate 607-8 of Hookers "Icones Plantarum while dried specimens of the flowering head and stem from Otago are to be found in the Museums of Economic Botany of Kew and Edinburgh. Specimens of the gum or gum-resin exuded by the flowering stem, from Dr. Hector, occur at Kew: it is pale, and, save as regards greater transparency, resembles "Kauri" gum.

The information we possess regarding A. squarossa and A. Colensoi is, I believe, far from being complete or satisfactory. They are still evidently confounded with each other by settlers, and the forms of both require further examination in their living state – at all altitudes at which they occur, and in all stages of growth.

II. – GEN. VISCUM.

V. Lindsayi, Oliver. 66 (Handb. Fl. N.Z., p. 108.) Parasitic on Coprosma rotundifolia, East Taeri Bush; and on Metrosideros hypericifolia, in the Bush, on the banks of the Water of Leith, near its mouth, Pelichet Bay, Dunedin; November and December in flower, (W. L. L.)

In the former locality it was somewhat abundant; in the latter less so. It affects also Melicope, and probably other shrubs or trees; and I believe, when looked for, it will be found a not uncommon Bush parasite, in the eastern districts at least of Otago. It is as yet the only true representative in Otago of our English V. album, L.; but a smaller species, V. Salicornioides, A. Cunn., a parasite on Leptospermum, Gaultheria, Dracophyllum, and other shrubs or trees, which occurs in other parts of the South Island, is also likely yet to be found in Otago.

V. Lindsayi is one of the "Native Mistletoes" of the settler: an extremely insignificant one, however, when compared with the handsome Otago species of Loranthus, whose showy scarlet flowers alone are sometimes one-and-a-half to two inches long, while those of the Viscum are extremely minute, green, and inconspicuous. The latter shrub grows generally at nearly right angles – divaricatingly – from the stem or branches of its host, in minute tufts, generally from 1 1/2 to 2" long. It is glabrous, branching, succulent, and of a vivid green colour, which, with its succulence, it loses in drying, assuming a shrivelled appearance, and brownish or blackish hue. Joints of the branches or stem vary from broadly obovate to spathulate or oblong-ovate; breadth about 1/4" generally, but variable; length, 1/4" – 1/2"; flat. The plant differs much from V. Salicornioides, which has long filiform or terete, twig-like joints, with generally solitary or non-spiked flowers. Not only in the same forest, but even on the same host, V. Lindsayi exhibits several variations, which, however, I had insufficient opportunity for studying. I would commend to local botanists the study of both the New Zealand species of Viscum, regarding whose variations and relations our knowledge is as yet incomplete.

III. – GEN. CELMISIA.

Quite as beautiful a genus as Olearia, though the general aspect of its species is very different. The leaves are generally more or less covered on the under, if not also on the upper, surface, with a thick, white, woolly or cottony tomentum; and the interior of the leaf is also in large measure made up of a similar cottony matter, which, in at least one species, has been applied by the Maoris or settlers to the manufacture of textile fabrics. The extreme toughness of the leaf and the presence of this cottony material have given rise to the popular

t Vide Plate II. of present Memoir.

colonial name applied to the more familiar species, – the "Leather" or "Cotton" plant. They are also known partly as the "Native Aster," – a term applied, however, equally to species of Olearia and Mesembryanthemum.

Several of its species are common on the elevated plains and mountains of the interior – above 2,000 feet, – generally where the nutritious grasses of the lower plains or downs cease to grow, and where snow lies for a great portion of the year, e.g., on the terraces of the Te Anau Lake basin (M'Kerrow); on the mountains of Martin's Bay, above the level of the bush, at or about 3,400 feet (Hector). The prevalence of Celmisiae, – with Asteliae (N. O. Liliaceae), which also possess cottony leaves – on the upland pastures, is a source of danger to sheep, which feed on these plants. The cottony matter of the leaf forms balls or concretions in the stomach, obstructs the passage of food through the intestines, and so, too frequently, proves a cause of fatal disease.

Species 1. – C. Lindsayi, Hook, f, Handb. Fl. N.Z., p. 132. 67 In crevices of the Trap Cliffs, Shaw's Bay, the Nuggets; December, in flower, but sparingly. (W. L. L.) I examined all the specimens (seven) in the Kew Herbarium; all, however, from the same station, and all collected by myself.

The plant has a great resemblance to C. Sinclairii. Hook, f., of the Nelson alps. Whole plant covered by a very viscid exudation. Head sometimes nearly 2" in diameter – as pressed in the Herbarium. Rhizome 1/3" thick; leaves sometimes nearly 3" long; serrations of edges so indistinct as to appear absent; margin sometimes smooth and regular; under side beautifully cottony-silvery; tomentum so close or dense as to resemble a coat of white-lead, becoming yellow or discoloured in drying; cottony character of midrib towards the short sheath not always apparent. In the Herbarium the whole plant (including stem, upper surface of leaf, and florets,) becomes brown, while the pappus acquires a brighter orange tint.

Species 2. – C. longifolia, Cass. (C. gracilenta, Fl. N.Z.) Uplands about Fairfield, Saddlehill; Sand-dunes about mouth of the Kaikorai; November and December, in flower. (W. L. L.)

Bears considerable resemblance to our Filago minima, L. It varies greatly with habitat, especially as regards the size of the leaf and flower-head. In some localities, it is a very small delicate plant; while in others it is 6-8" high. Though generally erect, on the sand-dunes it becomes a trailer. The flowers are dry and papery, silvery-whitish; the stem and leaves downy. The Saddlehill and Chainhill plant has the characters of the type. Longest leaves 4" long, 1/16" broad; linear and grass-like. Scapes generally two, more or less slender. Head generally under 1" in diameter; Involucral scales, with brown or blackish-brown acute apex, and blackish midrib; very cottony on both sides; Pappus red. Littoral forms differ in being glabrous, or nearly so, in all their parts [Involucral scales, scape and

leaves especially]; and in the more slender filiform scape and shorter leaf. Involucral scales acute or acuminate; blackish throughout; pappus much less red.

IV. – GEN. CREPIS.

C. Novae Zelandiae, Hook, f., Handb. Fl. N.Z., p. 164; (Hieracium fragile, Fl. N.Z.) 68 Tuapeka ranges, sparingly, December, in flower. (W. L. L.)

In the Kew Herbarium there are two forms, – the one larger, 14-15" tall, the other smaller, 1 1/2-2" high-corresponding very much to the ordinary, and marsh or montane, dwarf, forms of Taraxacum Dens Leonis, and its var. palustre. Leaf sub-lyrate or sub-runcinate, as in var. palustre of the Taraxacum just mentioned. Flower-scape or stem, especially in dwarf montane forms, sometimes densely coated with black glandular hairs, resembling, when examined under the lens, the stipes of various species of the Lichen-genus Calicium. Involucral scales lanceolate, with rounded obtuse tips, covered, like the scape, with hairs of similar character. Black hairs of pappus sometimes apparently absent.

V. – GEN. RUBUS.

R. australis, Forst. East Taeri Bush; Greenisland Bush; among scrub (or forming it), Basaltic Gully, Stoneyhill; uplands around Fairfield and Saddlehill; November, young, and in flower, (W. L. L.)

In size and general habit the plant is extremely variable; it occurs as a tall, suberect shrub, as a rambling forest climber, or as a straggling dwarf trailer. In the open, it is frequently a stout, suberect, woody shrub; in which form it has the habit of our common Bramble, (R. fruticosus, L.), whose representative it here is. In open country it also commonly occurs as a trailer over the ground, or a climber over or among other shrubs, forming by itself, or contributing, sometimes largely, with other shrubs, to form, the predominant "scrub" of the country. In the Bush the branches frequently become very long and slender, laying hold tendril-wise of the twigs of trees or bushes, and forming a jungle, which, by virtue of the usually densely prickly character of the leaf or leaf-stalk, is a formidable obstacle and enemy to the woodsman, or the adventurous botanist, whose hands and clothing it lacerates severely. In this condition it forms one of the most familiar and troublesome "Lawyers," or "Supple-Jacks," of the forest. It is known to the settler also as the "Wild Irishman," and to the North Island Maori as the "Tataramoa." 69 At the same time, its large showy flower-panicles, added to its scandent habit, enable it to rival species of Clematis and Parsonsia, and other tree-climbers (in their flowering season at least) as ornaments of the sombre "Bush."

Among the general variations or prevalent phenomena of growth may be enumerated the following: – Branches may be few or many; laxly or densely arranged; leafy or leafless; stout and woody, or filiform and slender; erect or spreading; simply disposed, or intertwining and entangled. Leaf generally very coriaceous; varies from ovate to a mere midrib; in the macrophylline forms leaflets are glossy, and frequently blackish in Herbarium; margins entire, or variously toothed or sinuate; old leaves frequently more or less deeply fossulate, especially on upper surface; upper surface of young ones in Herbarium sometimes almost black, on which the fulvous puberulence of the veins is generally distinct under the lens. Leaflet-petioles sometimes very long (3"); sometimes so short that the leaflet appears almost sessile. Prickles vary greatly in their number, rigidity, and closeness of aggregation; some forms of the plant are densely spinous, others almost a-spinous; sometimes absent on the main stem and branches, though present generally on the ultimate ramuscles, as well as on the leaf-petioles and midribs. They are sub-terete or sub-compressed; generally recurved; always more or less sharp and rigid-pointed. Their distribution is very irregular; sometimes they occur in pairs, or several are close together; while on other petioles of the same leaf or plant, other prickles are sparsely scattered. Pubescence of calyx, flower-stalks, and terminal divisions of panicle variable as to denseness. While the young shoots are pubescent, the stem and branches of the same plant may be only puberulent, or even glabrous. The Hairs, while always of the same yellowish colour, differ greatly in size, number, and arrangement. Flower-panicles lax or dense; much branched and many flowered, or the reverse; in all my specimens without prickles. Petals dry to a buff colour in Herbarium.

The variations of the leaf are infinite apparently, and indefinable; so that it appears to me unnecessary to maintain separately named forms, depending on characters, which, at least in the native state of the plant, appear to be very inconstant. Dr. Hooker, however, assures us in his "Handbook," (p. 54), that all the three varieties therein named – and which appear to occur in Otago – "keep their characters under cultivation." I find that florists in this country cultivate the seeds of R. cissoides, A. Cunn., as a distinct species; and the same seems to be the case with two other forms of the type, which I can only characterise respectively as major and minor conditions. I have seen all three in cultivation in the Edinburgh Botanic Garden – seedlings, regarded as separate species, and reported by Mr. Macnab as growing true to their supposed specific characters. There they are grown under glass, without heat, and are regarded as only half-hardy. Mr. Macnab does not think they would stand our severe winters in the open. But at Trinity, near Edinburgh, Mr. Gorrie has found the same plant to stand unhurt the three last winters (1864-7) at the base of walls with western and eastern exposures, protected, however, so far by the snow of 1867. In cultivation in Scotland, R. cissoides is said to be much more ornamental than some so-called foliage-

plants. Its berries are small, globular, juicy, and austere. "In the hands of skilful hybridizers, some curious crosses might be obtained between it and our common 'Bramble' – especially Rubus laciniatus," (Gorrie.)

The chief forms of Rubus australis, which occur in my Herbarium, are the following: –

I. FROM EAST TAERI BUSH.

(A.) In one set of specimens, leaflets are about 5-nate, ovate, glabrous, about 1" long, 3/4" broad, with deeply toothed margin.

(B.) In another set, (apparently approaching var. schmidelioides A. Cunn); leaflets are on the same plant 3-nate or irregularly sub-palmate; generally linear-oblong, or linear-lanceolate, or lanceolate; 3" long, 1/3-3/4" broad, glabrous (as in all other cases never seen pubescent below); margins entire, or deeply and irregularly toothed.

(C.) Another specimen possesses the characters of var. glaber Fl. N.Z., and is so unlike the more usual forms of the plant that it is apt to be altogether overlooked as a Rubus. Its young inflorescence is a long, slender, lax panicle, 3-4" long, few flowered (6-14), resembling a raceme; densely pubescent, with tawny or fulvous hairs. Leaf-stalks, branchlets, and even the more woody branches also more or less puberulent. The plant is nearly destitute of prickles; two or three small ones are to be found, only on close examination, on one of the leaf-stalks; latter frequently 1" long. Leaf 3-mate; leaflets somewhat birch-like, 1 3/4" long, 1 1/4" broad; ovate or ovate-oblong; very coriaceous; silvery-glaucous and shining above; lower surface brown; both surfaces marked by much fine reticulation; both quite glabrous; margin irregularly sinuate-serrate, and much lacerate from insect erosion; teeth generally sharp and rigid-pointed, but variable in form and size; margin of leaflet, and especially of its erosions, generally thickened.

(D) In a fourth specimen, the plant is prickly – the prickles occurring chiefly, as usual, on the leaf-petioles and midribs – as brownish-yellow or whitish, sharp, recurved spines. Leaflets vary from ovate to orbicular, about 3/4" in diameter; length seldom much exceeding the breadth; glabrous on both sides in the old state, while in younger conditions there is generally pubescence or puberulence of the midrib and chief veins; margin more or less deeply and most irregularly toothed; both surfaces exhibit a mass of fine reticulation, which is sometimes best marked on upper, sometimes on the paler under, surface. Young leaves generally dry blackish, especially on their upper surface. Leaflet-petioles 1 1/2"-2" long; very slender; puberulence, as usual, best seen on the young shoots (leaves and petioles); consists of fulvous hairs, more or less closely aggregated, appressed, spreading, or retrorse.

II. FROM GREENISLAND BUSH. – Leaflets 3-nate, stalked, ovate-oblong, 1 1/2-2" long, 1-1 1/4" broad, acuminate and obtuse at apex in same plant; very coriaceous, with a toothed and spinulose margin.

III. FROM SADDLEHILL. – Branching lax; branches few, straggling, and slender; sparingly leafy; leaflets 3-nate on long naked petioles, (sometimes 3" long); leaflets about 1 1/2" long, 1/3" broad; very coriaceous, sub-lanceolate, with deeply and irregularly-toothed margin.

IV. FROM STONEYHILL. – (var. cissoides, A. Gunn.) Leaf consists only of a midrib – the lamina being entirely absent; or there being a minute sub-foliaceous development at the tip of the extremely slender, filiform, tendril-like midrib, which appears as the leafless prolongation of a linear, sub-terete, twining or trailing branch. In this case, there is little difference in size or other character in or between the branches and midribs; the whole plant has a uniform bare appearance, consisting of an extremely tangled mass of inter-twining, long, filiform, tendrillike twigs – more or less copiously prickle-covered. This is generally by far the most spinulose form, the coating of prickles being sometimes as dense as in our Rosa spinosissima, L.; and its leafless, bare aspect places it along with Carmichaelia, Discaria, and other more or less leafless shrubs of Otago, in the category of those which possess an Australian physiognomy. There is a much greater difference in appearance between this leafless form and what is considered the typical or common form – that which is large-leaved and bramble-like – or between it and certain forms of var. glaber-than between many Book-species of other genera in the New Zealand Flora. But in this case the plant is so abundant, that within a very limited area in the settled districts, passage-forms can be collected, which prove the relationship to be one of condition only, and non-specific. It only requires, I believe, greater trouble and more time in the collection of transition or connecting forms over large areas, to prove equally that not a few presently so called species of other genera stand to each other in the simpler relation of forms of a protean and comprehensive type.

In the New Zealand Exhibition of 1865, there was shown an "Unintoxicating Wine, made from the juice of the 'Wild Bramble' growing in Hawke's Bay." 70 This is probably a mere expressed juice, sweetened or not; and analogous to Toot Wine. 71

VI. – GEN. ACAENA.

Under the name A. Novae Zelandiae, 72 Florists cultivate in this country what appear to be different varieties or species of the genus. 73 One group is red-flowered,

and is probably referable to A. Sanguisorbae; the other is green-flowered, but appears to me to belong to the same species. I have not, however, had sufficient opportunities of determining the species in these cultivated forms of the New Zealand Acaenae, nor how far the mere colour of the inflorescence is a sufficient specific test. In the first group, the leaflet is orbicular and small; in the second, it is oblong, and much larger than in A. Sanguisorbae; while between these representative types there is every gradation in form and size. The mere size and form of leaflet are, indeed, obviously an insufficient specific character.

The red-flowered microphylline form has been largely cultivated by Florists, and is one of the very few New Zealand plants, which they unanimously regard as hardy. It has proved so during many years experience in various localities about Edinburgh, e.g., Trinity (Gorrie & Stark); Botanic Garden (Macnab); Dean Cemetery (Rae). To British Nurserymen it is also now familiar as a favourite ornamental plant for borders, on account of its growth in dense, dwarf masses, covered in autumn with a profusion of scarlet blossom. Backhouse, of York, advertises it as "quite hardy," and as best "in sandy loam and peat." 74 By some Florists, A. Novae Zelandiae is reckoned one of the most important and beautiful introductions yet made from New Zealand.

The green-flowered macrophylline forms have also proved hardy in cultivation, at Trinity, where Mr. Gorrie has had them in the open air for three years. He has also grown the plant under glass: and here it acquires the character of an ornamental pendent plant. On a greenhouse shelf, its shoots, which are long, rambling, and Potentilla or Fragaria-like, hang down five or six feet. Cultivated specimens from Otago seed sent me by Mr. Gorrie have the following characters: Young shoots (leaf and branches) very silky-villous; older branches sparingly covered with very delicate buff-coloured, or whitish, hairs; leaf 1-1 1/4" long; much less silky than in A. Sanguisorbae; hairs mostly on the midrib, and principal veins, below, and on the young shoots. Leaflets, about five pairs, with a terminal one; 1/4-1/3" long; narrower and more deeply serrate than in A. Sanguisorbae; membranous; frequently covered with a whitish or glaucous bloom above; teeth tipped with silky hairs; lowest leaflets always shorter, much more divided, and with narrower, longer, teeth, than the central ones, which are largest and oblong, but not cuneate at either end. Mr. Anderson-Henry cultivates what appears to be a form of the same plant, under the name A. ovina. 75 His is a tall handsome plant,

with large oblong leaflets, very different in habit from the dwarf, compact, microphylline A. Novae Zelandiae.

A. Sanguisorbae, Vahl. Uplands about Saddlehill and Stoneyhill; on roadsides and waste places; frequent also in the Bush and among scrub in the Greenisland district; sometimes forming a topping to clay fences, as our "Whin" does in Scotland; October, in flower and fruit, (W. L. L.)

A trailer, with the habit of a Potentilla (e.g. Tormentil), whose representative, along with the British genus Sanguisorba, it may be held in great measure here to be. Its terminal, round fruit-balls are studded over with a series of barbed spines or booklets (prolongations from the calyx-tube), which catch the wool of sheep brushing against them. Hence the plant is only too familiar, as the "Native Burr" to the sheep farmers alike of New Zealand, Australia, and Tasmania. As the plant is frequently very abundant on pastures, it seriously damages the quality of the fleece of sheep. To men's clothes, too, the "Burr" sticks like the involucre of our Arctium Lappa, L., or the fruit of our Galium aparine, L. In gardens and fields, moreover, it is a rapidly-spreading, noxious weed, rivalling many of the immigrant British weeds – such as the clovers, docks, and thistles – as the pest of the agriculturist. To the Otago settler the plant is also known as the "Bidi-bidi," or "Beta-beta;" to the North Island Maori as "Hutiwai," "Piri-piri," 76 (Colenso), or "Piri-kahu," (Colenso).

Like the Leptosperma, in the earlier days of colonisation, the plant was much used, in bush journeys, to yield by infusion a substitute for tea.

The specimens in my Herbarium exhibit the following characters: Villosity of young shoots (leaves and branchlets) sometimes very marked; hairs long, numerous, and closely aggregated; villosity of leaf confined sometimes to midrib and principal veins, but of the lower surface only; more generally whole under side is silky; the hairs white, and varying in length and closeness of appression. Leaf generally about 2" long, or under; glabrous above. Leaflets seldom in more than six pairs, with a terminal one; generally oblong, or slightly obovate; about 1/3" long, and 1/7" broad; sometimes simple, linear, and consisting of a single tooth-like lamina; more frequently digitately pinnatifid – the lower leaflets being divided into 1-2, up to 4-6, digitate or linear teeth; more generally there are about 6 teeth on either side, varying in size and form; usually subulate or irregularly triangular; awned or bristle-pointed. Scapes vary in length, sometimes very short, sometimes longish; pubescent or villose, especially when short and stout. Heads about in diameter; Calyx-bristles about long, not purple in Herbarium; Calyx-tube hispid with greyish, long, coarse hairs.

VII. – GEN. GEUM.

G. urbanum, L., var. strictum, Ait. (G. Magellanicum, Commerson, Fl. N.Z.,) Banks of the Stream, Wetherstones Flat, Tuapeka, 8-12" high; January, in flower, (W. L. L.) The "Kopata" of the North Island Maoris, (Colenso): a term also applied, however, to Pelargonium clandestinum. The representative of our British forms of G. urbanum; than which, however, it is a much handsomer plant. It has also somewhat the habit of our Bidens.

My Herbarium specimens have the following characters: – Hairiness differs in degree and character in different parts of the same plant. Sometimes there is mere scabridity; and there is every gradation between the hirsute and scabrid conditions. The flower-peduncle is generally the most hirsute part of the plant; sometimes it is copiously covered with fulvous bristly hairs. Midrib and chief nerves, with the edge of the leaf and the leaf-petiole, are sometimes also very distinctly hirsute, though occasionally nearly glabrous. Generally the leaf-surface is sparingly covered with short, fulvous, bristly hairs, like those of the flower-peduncle. Larger leaves generally 4-7" long, 3" broad; petiole of radical leaves sometimes 3" long. Forms of leaf so variable that it is impossible to describe or define them in words. The leaf is variously lyrate, pinnatisect, or palmatisect, or pinnate (partly only), or pinnatifid; sometimes pinnate in lower parts, and pinnatifid in the upper; apex acute; Pinnae, sometimes shortly petiolate, (petiole under long); more frequently sessile; and sometimes adnate by a broad foliaceous or membranous base ; extremely variable in size and form; of unequal size and irregular form on same plant; variously, irregularly, and obscurely obovate, elliptical, obcuneate, flabelliform, lobate, sub-digitately pinnatifid, laciniate, or dissected; sometimes 2 1/2" long and 1 1/4" broad; Margin sinuate, or crenate, or doubly crenate; very frequently eroded by insects; terminal pinna largest; central and basal pinnae generally more or less small and auricular. Midrib and principal nerves generally very prominent. Whole leaf dries to a leathery-brown colour. Stipules much simpler than the leaves; generally pinnatifid, consisting of one long central or terminal, and two auricular basal, lobes, sometimes short and sub-simple, or even entire, or only irregularly notched or lobed-broadly ovate; more generally with an elongated central lobe. Common petiole (rhachis), as well as the petiolules, variously hispid or scabrid; never quite glabrous. Flower across. Calyx-lobes; outer surface and margin frequently very hirsute with hairs of same character as on other parts of the plant; inner surface glabrous or scabrid; petals scarcely longer than calyx. Fruit-stalk sometimes 4" long; head sub-globose, about in diameter. Carpels copiously clothed with bristle-like hairs-here more rigid than on other parts of the plant. Styles long, prominent, straight, numerous, brown, scattered over, or projecting from, the

fruit-head, giving it somewhat the appearance of that of Acaena Sanguisorbae; lower part of the portion beyond the bend hirsute with hairs of the typical character.

I have carefully compared the Otago form of G. urbanum with British forms, in my Herbarium, of that species, and of G. intermedium, especially from Auchtertool Linn, and Aberdour Woods, Fifeshire. The Otago plant is much more leafy than the British one, and the leaf much more, and more irregularly, divided. The British plant has simpler, shorter leaves, of generally only three leaflets (ternate), or with only a rudimentary additional leaflet, on the rhachis. There is the same character of the styles in Auchtertool specimens of G. intermedium Ehrh.; but they are much longer and more slender in the latter. In the Otago plant the pinnae are generally longer, narrower, and more divided. Aberdour specimens of G. urbanum, from the shade of its woods, are quite as tall as the Otago plant.

VIII. – GEN. GERANIUM.

I am far from satisfied with the present definition of the New Zealand species, as a group, or of any one of them. I believe that careful investigation by local Botanists will result in the reduction of the present number of Book-species; and I think, moreover, it would be quite in accordance with Nature to refer all of them to a single type.

The two-flowered peduncle, for instance, seems to me the only character, in my specimens, distinguishing pilosum and microphyllum, (in neither had I opportunity of examining the seeds.) Villosity is much more marked in microphyllum than pilosum; the awn of the sepals is sometimes absent in the latter; the leaves are much smaller, and less cut in the former.

I have, however, quite as much difficulty in satisfying myself of the validity of the specific distinctions between the British G. molle, L., G. pusillum, L., G. pyrenaicum, L., and G. rotundifolium, L. The characters on which Bentham founds the British species of Geranium are not, I think, constant; and are not, therefore, in themselves, good bases for classification; though in combination they may – according to certain views of species – be held to be sufficiently distinctive. Both in New Zealand and British species the following characters are variable: –

1. The distinction between Annual and Perennial growth; not a few plants being both annual, biennial, and perennial, under different circumstances or conditions.

2. Degree of villosity of different parts of plant; and length, colour, and tenuity of the hairs.

3. One or two flowers on flower-peduncles are not invariable in the same species.

4. Length and stoutness of peduncles and pedicels.

5. Form and degree of division of leaves.

6. Form of sepals; short or long on same species; angled or not; length, especially in relation to petals.

7. Form and colour of petals; division of tips; size-absolute, and in relation to that of sepals.

Several of the New Zealand Gerania have quite a British physiognomy, and the appearance of being naturalised, – growing luxuriantly about settlements, evidently following cultivation. At least one British species is recorded by Dr. Hooker as indigenous, G. molle, L. But, as in the parallel cases of Sonchus and Taraxacum, I know no means of determining what forms to refer to the native, and what to the naturalised plant; for I do not doubt their occurrence also as introduced.

Species 1. G. microphyllum, Hook. f. (G. Potentilloides, Fl. N.Z.). On roadsides, Greenisland, common; on mud-fences and ditch-sides about Kaikorai mill; on sand-dunes about mouth of the Kaikorai; Woodburn ravine, Saddlehill; Stoneyhill; and more or less abundant on all the Greenisland uplands; October to December, in flower, (W. L. L.)

Several forms occur. Sometimes it grows erect-generally 8-10" high-becoming one of the handsomest of the Otago Gerania. More frequently it forms large, flat, spreading tufts, generally about 6-8", but sometimes 20-24", in diameter; straggling and trailing somewhat like our G. pusillum, G. rotundi folium, or G. columbinum, L., which it here represents. Both the erect and procumbent forms occur dwarfed (e.g., in Woodburn ravine).

All the forms in my Herbarium are procumbent, and some of them microphylline, much branched, and very leafy. Leaf frequently only broad in the smaller forms; sometimes nearly 1" broad in the larger; frequently 3-fid, the segments being, further, irregularly notched, the secondary divisions acute or obtuse. Hairs long and graceful; most copious on the young shoots, leaves, flower-peduncles, and calyces. Were it not for the two-flowered peduncle, I would refer this species with Bentham and Midler to pilosum. I am not, however, satisfied of the sufficiency of this specific character.

The "Handbook" gives the habitat of G. microphyllum as "mountainous or hilly situations but my plant was plentiful a little above the sea-level, (under 100 feet).

Species 2. G. dissectum, L., A. var. Carolinianum, Fl. N.Z.

On roadsides in the Greenisland district - sometimes associated with the preceding. The "Matuakumera" of the North Island Maori: – a term, however, more generally applied to the tuberous edible root. Colenso also assigns the Maori name "Pinakitere;" but it does not clearly appear whether to the type, or to which of its New Zealand forms.

B. var. pilosum, Forst. (G. pilosum, Fl. N.Z.) About Myres, Inch Clutha, on the banks of the Clutha; November, in flower and fruit, (W. L. L.) Has the habit of our G. molle.

The plant occurs both erect and decumbent. Prostrate, dwarf forms resemble microphyllum; they also resemble our G. pusillum; while the larger ones have more the aspect of our G. molle. Whole plant sometimes comparatively glabrous (Clutha forms), and generally the hairs on the stem are very minute, fine, inconspicuous, and closely appressed, so that to the naked eye the stem appears sub-glabrous. Hairs, however, are generally more or less copious on other parts of the plant, varying greatly in their character. They may be short or long, simple or glandular; appressed, spreading, or retrorse; plentiful, or so few and fine as to appear to the naked eye absent. Sometimes they are very long and silky – e.g., on the sepals (in Clutha forms) – spreading, not retrorse. In one of the Clutha forms also, the carpels are clothed with glandular hairs, which possess a slender, filamentous, whitish stem, crowned by a black globular head, resembling some forms of the stipes in the Lichen-genus Calicium; on these carpels they are plentiful and distinct. They have the same character, to a certain extent, on the sepals and flower-peduncles, on which, however, they are less distinctly visible.

There is great diversity in the form of the leaf – especially in the number and character of its divisions – even in the same plant, and still more in specimens from different localities. Upper leaves are sometimes divided to their base; or they are 3-5-fid, or 3-5-nate; the segments being lanceolate, with entire margins; while a little lower on the plant, the leaf may possess the same number of divisions (3 to 5); but the segments are variously pinnatifid, palmatifid, or pedatifid; and frequently, also, they are narrow or linear, with acute terminations. Only sometimes are the leaves seated on long petioles, (occasionally 4" long,) but sometimes, also, they are sessile; and there is every gradation between the sessile and petiolate conditions. The leaf is variable also as to size. Frequently the leaves clothing the lower or mid portions of the stem are 2" broad.

Bracts and stipules vary in length. Bracts membranous or chaffy, brownish-green, with a comparatively stout and dark-brown midrib; while the lateral or laminar portions are sub-translucent, and very membranous. Stipules usually brown or brownish-yellow, and chaffy-mostly subulate or lanceolate, resembling the bracts of the flower-peduncles. Sepals vary in form; lanceolate to broadly ovate; stout or membranous; mucronate, or awned, or not, (not awned in the Clutha forms); ribbed or not, smoothish or hairy. Petals considerably longer than the sepals – sometimes nearly twice as long; bifid or entire – frequently the former; bluish, but becoming in the Herbarium white, as in Campanula and Wahlenbergia.

Three separately named forms of var. Carolinianum are given in the "Handbook." But they appear to me based on inconstant and ill-marked characters, and therefore unnecessarily, I think, occupy a place in classification. My plant possesses the characters of form glabratum; though it is referred in my Herbarium, by Dr. Hooker, to pilosum. The hairs are much less copious. It seems

in certain respects intermediate between dissectum and molle, having quite as much title to rank with the latter as with the former.

I have compared suites of specimens of the Otago 'pilosum with the British molle in my Herbarium, and I fail to distinguish the two series of plants by any constant or sufficient characters. The resemblance is greater to molle than to dissectum; the foliage is that of the former, while the awned sepals are generally those of the latter.

IX. – GEN. GAULTHERIA.

Species 1. – G. antipoda, Forst. Uplands and gullies of Saddlehill and Stoneyhill; Chain Hill ranges; top of the ranges between Halfway Bush and the North Taeri; Christie's Bush, Saddlehill; Finegand Bush, Lower Clutha; on slaty Traps, Mount Cooey, Clutha Ferry; October and November, young and in flower, (W. L. L.) The "Koropuku" of the Maori.

Var. e (erecta), Handb. Fl. N.Z. Saddlehill uplands and Chain Hill ranges; December, young and in flower, (W. L. L.)

Var. d (microphylla), Handb. Fl. N.Z. Saddlehill uplands; October, in flower and fruit; abundant, (W. L. L.)

The variations of the plant are so numerous and inconstant, especially as regards its habit of growth (erect or prostrate), and the size and form of the leaf, that it appears to me utterly useless to define or name so-called varieties. In my specimens the chief variations are the following: –

Leaf, especially in prostrate forms, frequently narrowly linear-lanceolate, long, and 1/10 - 1/8" broad; while in erect forms, it becomes obovate or sub-obicular, 3/4" long and 1/2" broad-there being every gradation in form and size between these macrophylline and microphylline conditions. In both conditions, the leaves are all more or less serrate, – the teeth being most distinct in the macrophylline forms.

Flowers vary in size, number, degree of crowding (aggregation), and colour; sometimes they are terminal and single (in prostrate forms). Fruit varies, especially in colour and size.

Branches sometimes quite glabrous, or covered with chaffy, brownish, blackish, or whitish bristles – there being every variation between these conditions. Bristles may be long or short, numerous or few – more or less closely appressed; they may affect only the young or terminal branchlets – the older and lower branches being woody and smooth.

The whole plant, including the flower, assumes a deep brownish or blackish-brown colour in the Herbarium. Bush forms are uniformly more delicate and handsome than those growing on exposed uplands. The Handb. Fl. N.Z. describes its forms as mostly alpine; but all the numerous conditions I found in Otago occur at low elevations, generally about 500 feet, and in all cases under

1500 feet, above the sea. The plant occupies very much the place of our Vaccinium and Arctostaphylos on the moorlands of Otago, both as to habitat and general aspect. It constitutes, with species of Coprosma, one of the commonest elements of the "scrub" on the ranges of the Greenisland district.

Species 2. – G. rupestris, Br., var. d (Colensoi, Hook. f.). Tuapeka ranges; January, in flower, (W. L. L.) A Tarndale (Nelson) form in my Herbarium differs somewhat from the Otago plant, especially in that it is few-flowered – the lax inflorescence more resembling that of some of my Otago forms of G. antipoda than of G. rupestris. The leaves also are considerably larger and more fulvous.

I doubt whether all the larger, erect, macrophylline forms of G. antipoda can be distinguished by any sufficient characters from certain conditions of G. rupestris; and it seems to me probable that the local Botanist may discover further passage-forms, which will render it desirable to unite these Book-species under one type. The parallel forms in both have a pseudo-racemose inflorescence, frequently very much alike; in both, the branchlets are glabrous; and there are other points of resemblance in detail. G. rupestris seemed to me to be a more montane plant than G. antipoda; but my experience in the eastern districts may not hold good throughout Otago.

In specimens of the typical plant from Tarndale, the ultimate branchlets are sparingly hispid with longish, distinct, blackish or brownish, flexuose, subrigid hairs. Leaf varies from broadly-lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, sometimes sub-orbicular; 3/4" long and 1/4-1/3" broad; subacute, obtuse, retuse, or notched slightly and irregularly, at apex. Racemes about 1" long, few-flowered (frequently 3-6). Pedicels longer than the bracteoles.

In Tuapeka, var. Colensoioccurs as a low bush. Main or older branches are quite glabrous; young branchlets sometimes sub-pubescent, sometimes setulose with long, distinct, bristly hairs, which also occur occasionally on the young leaf-margins. There is the same variety in the form and size of leaf as in the type – smaller, generally under long and broad, frequently suborbicular. Racemes many-flowered, densely clustered, in masses about 1 1/2" in diameter. The various forms of G. rupestris, as named or described by Br. Hooker, differ as much, especially as regards inflorescence, from each other, as do the species of many other genera. I believe the record of the five varieties given in the Handbook to be unnecessary.

Haast mentions what he regards as a new species from stony localities on the plains westward of the western alps of Nelson; but the other two New Zealand species are given in the Handb. Fl. N.Z. as North Island plants only; and it is quite as probable that some of the very variable and puzzling forms of either G. antipoda or G. rupestris may have misled him, as that the subject of his observations deserves place as a distinct and new species.

X. – GEN. WAHLENBERGIA.

The equivalent in Otago of our British genus Campanula, than which, however, its species are much less handsome, and, in general, inferior also in size. This is one of the many New Zealand genera, which raise the questions, –

1. What is a species in Nature?

2. In species so-called, which are connected by passage-forms, how or where can the systematist properly draw the line of separation?

3. Is it preferable for science to regard such plants as W. gracilis and saxicola as referable to a single type?

As Book-species, undoubtedly, the extreme forms of these plants differ sufficiently. But there is a continuity of variation between them, which renders it impossible to determine where the one species ends and the other begins.

On the Finegand ranges, Lower Clutha, for instance, I met with a plant growing in dense tufts 6-8" high, with a white flower intermediate in size between that of typical forms of W. gracilis, (flower small and insignificant,) and that of W. saxicola, (flower large and handsome.) This appeared to be one of the puzzling transition or intermediate forms between the two species just named, which I was at a loss to refer to the one species rather than the other. A more comprehensive definition of species or types would obviate or abolish – or remedy at least in far greater measure than at present – such difficulties of the field Botanist.

Species 1. – W. gracilis, A. DC. Basaltic gully, Stoneyhill, 8-10" high; Stoneyhill Bush, 15"; uplands about Stoneyhill and Saddlehill, and in Greenisland generally, 12-15"; ranges about Finegand, Lower Clutha; November to December, in flower, (W. L. L.)

Known to the settlers, in common with the following, which better deserves the name, as "the Blue Bell;" the representative in Otago of the British Campanula rotundifolia, L., certain of whose forms it sometimes resembles. My specimens vary in size from 8 to 24"; the plant is sometimes erect; quite as frequently it is more or less a trailer or procumbent. In the larger forms especially, the branches are few, comparatively leafless or naked, slender and filiform; in the smaller forms, especially those which are procumbent, the stems are simple, and the plant more or less densely tufted. Whole plant glabrous in all my specimens – whether larger or smaller – erect or procumbent forms. Leaves sometimes in the larger forms 2" long and 1/2" broad; spathulate or obovate below, becoming linear above; generally comparatively numerous below, the stem appearing leafy, but so sparse above that it appears almost naked; margin entire or sinuate. Calyx-tube sometimes 1/3-1/2" long in larger forms. Corolla uniformly white in Herbarium. Larger forms somewhat resemble the British C. patula, L.; in all cases the Otago plant is inferior in beauty to any of our British Campanulae. I see no advantage in separately naming such conditions as var. a and b of the Handb. Fl.

N.Z. It would be better simply to indicate the general directions, or forms, of variation.

Species 2. – W. saxicola, Br. Ranges about Finegand, Lower Clutha, December in flower, (W. L. L.) Ascends to 6,500 feet, e.g., on Mount Egmont, (Buchanan.) The "Native Blue Bell" of the settler. The tufted, stellately-arranged radical leaves – somewhat as in our "Daisy" – are scarcely peculiar to this species, as contrasted with W. gracilis; for in the latter, as already mentioned, the stem is virtually naked, while the lower leaves are tufted and stellately arranged, very much as in W. saxicola.

XI. – GEN. VERONICA.

Hardy, shrubby species are so abundant on the higher ranges of the interior of Otago, at or above 4000 feet, where snow frequently falls or lies, that it has been purposed by local Botanists to designate this sub-alpine region "The Veronica Region." The Otago Veronicas include several very handsome shrubs; which sometimes assume or approach the dimensions of trees (6 feet, or upwards, high, with a stem of 8-10" diameter).

In cultivation, they become very ornamental. One or two are already grown in British gardens; and it is probable that many more might be successfully introduced; for, as a group, they are very hardy, and most of them sub-alpine. Several species occur at elevations above 4000 feet – e.g., V. Buchanani, Hook, f., up to 5000; and V. Hectori, Hook, f., up to 7000 feet. Sub-alpine forms are common ornaments of the Highlands of the Lake district; including V. Traversii, Hook. f.; V. buxifolia, Benth.,; V. lycopodioides, Hook. f.; V. cupressoides, Hook, f.; V. Lyallii Hook. f.; and V. Bidwillii, Hook. (3000 ft.) Not a few are common also in the "scrub" or "bush" of the western fjords – e.g., on Chalky Bay and Preservation Inlet, (Hector). Nevertheless, the results of cultivation-experiments in Scotland are by no means uniform. For instance, at Towerville, Helensburgh, all the Otago Veronicas were killed out by the winter, being found to stand only 1° or 2° of frost. So decided, indeed, was the failure of the experiment considered to be here, that all farther idea of growing Otago plants of any kind in the open during winter was at once given up. On the other hand, the experience of Messrs. Gorrie & Anderson-Henry at Trinity is much more favourable. V. speciosa, R. Cunn., which appears to be a North Island species for the most part, withstands a temperature of about 20°; and numerous hybrids between it and other New Zealand species, raised by Mr. Anderson-Henry, have stood 4° or 5° more than this of frost. One or two were unhurt by, though fully exposd to, the cold of January, 1867 – thus resisting a greater degree of cold than either parent, (Gorrie.) V. laevis, Benth., which does not appear to be distributed further south than Nelson, stood four winters at the base of walls, and sustained only slight in-

jury of its shoot-points from the alternate sunny and frosty weather of spring. V. buxifolia, which is subalpine in Otago, withstood the severe winter of 1860-1 – covered, however, by snow; and another New Zealand species (not named) stood out the two last winters at Shandon on the Gairloch, (Gorrie.) The Veronicas cultivated about Edinburgh are mostly referable to the V. Lindleyana of Paxton and Florists (our salicifolia). The majority of those I saw at Hay Lodge, Trinity, appeared to be forms of V. salicifolia, V, elliptica, and V. laevis.

Some of the New Zealand Veronicas were the subject of successful hybridization by Mr. Anderson-Henry – e.g. V. speciosa and V. elliptica. In some of his experiments, seeds were obtained "perhaps in larger abundance and of equal fertility with those of either of its parents." 77

Veronica is one of the many New Zealand genera, which exhibit numerous and puzzling passage-forms between book-species; one of those, therefore, requiring careful revision in order to the establishment of more comprehensive types and specific definitions, and the consequent reduction of specific names. The variations of New Zealand species in cultivation are such that I see no difficulty in referring all the New Zealand forms to a few types; though I cannot go quite so far as my friend Dr. Muller, who, in his Flora of the Chatham Islands, reduces all the Veronicas to a single species.

Monstrosities of the Racemes occasionally occur in the native species-e.g., in the common V. salicifolia. The Maori names "Kokomuka" and "Korokio" probably refer to such common species as become weeds in native cultivations.

Species 1. – V. salicifolia, Forst. Glen Martin and M'Coll's gully, Saddlehill; December, in flower, (W. L. L.) Larger and smaller forms occur. The commonest and most familiar, if not also the handsomest, of all the Otago Veronicas I saw. In allusion to its frequent habit and habitat – on the banks of streams – it is locally known as the New Zealand "Willow," (Buchanan.) The Otago settlers also call it "Korimuka," (Martin,) – "Korumeek," (Hector,) – properly spelled "Koromiko" – a term also applied to V. parviflora, Vahl, 78 (Bidwill), V. elliptica, and perhaps in general, to all shrubby species of the genus. Employed by the Maoris as a tonic and purgative.

In cultivation it is very ornamental, and for the most part hardy; as such it has long been familiar in British gardens. At Trinity, some seedlings from Otago seed stood out four years, flowered and seeded in the summer of 1866, and were killed down nearly to the ground by the frost of January 1867. Other plants of similar age, and with similar foliage, but of very dense, burly, dwarf habit, have not yet flowered; but were not much injured by the same frost,

(Gorrie.) In the Edinburgh Botanic Garden, however, V. salicifolia was "much injured" by the frost in question, (Macnab.) 79

The specimens in my Herbarium represent a shrub with woody branches. No part of the plant exhibits pubescence. Leaf generally 3" long and broad; lanceolate; midrib distinct on either surface; Margin in no case "entire;" in all my specimens a tendency to serration of margin; serratures vary in number and depth – generally few, small, and inconspicuous – sometimes distinct to the naked eye. Leaf, especially when young, dries very black on upper surface; large and membranous, as compared with that of V. elliptica, V. parviflora, and most other Otago species. Bracts subulate, not very rigid. Racemes 4-5" long, and their peduncles 1 1/2" long; giving a total length of 5-7"; constituent parts assume a blackish hue in drying (like the leaves). Sepals elliptical, acute, glabrous. Corolla in diameter; becomes lurid brown in Herbarium.

In a specimen of what appears to be this species in my Herbarium, from Glen Martin, the inflorescence is monstrous; and all its parts are larger than in the ordinary form of the plant, as above described from M'Coll's gully. Raceme not simple, but much branched and copiously flowered, producing a mass of blossom 3 1/2" broad, and 7" long. The parts of the inflorescence vary in size on the same compound raceme. The lower flowers on the main divisions of the raceme are few, – on slender filiform pedicels, which are much shorter than the long, linear-lanceolate bracts; latter sometimes long, flaccid and membranous. In the upper part of the raceme, and on its lateral branches, the flowers are crowded. All parts of the inflorescence are glabrous. Sepals more membranous and longer than in the type; equally acute; of a dark brownish colour, and with a thickened centre and sub-pellucid edges. Capsule about same length as calyx, with a very prominent, filiform, curving, long style (1/4-1/3" in length); acquires a black colour in drying.

Species 2. – V. elliptica, Forst. 80 Edge of the Bush, Willshire's Bay, mouth of the Clutha; December, in flower, (W. L. L.) Also an ornamental shrub-tree, with a stem sometimes 8-10" in diameter, frequenting both the west (Buchanan), and east, coasts.

My plant is small, varying from a few inches to a few feet high; very shrubby, with crowded foliage. Branches woody and stout, but glabrous. Leaves close-set and spreading; scarcely (or shortly) petiolate; about 1" long, and broad; elliptical-oblong; not truncate at base, but narrowing into a pseudo-petiole; entire; very coriaceous; acute or sub-acuminate; dry to a deep brown or blackish-brown on upper surface. Racemes about 1-1 1/2" long, with from 5-10" flowers; seated about the ends of the branches; not at all corymbose; pedicels very short and inconspicuous. Corolla large; limb nearly twice as long as tube. All parts

of raceme dry to a lurid brown colour; the sepals, tube of corolla, centre of sepals and bracts, with their pedicels, being blackest or darkest in tint.

My plant was named elliptica by Dr. Hooker. But its characters do not correspond with the description given in the "Handbook," (p. 209). If it is really his elliptica, I cannot agree with him that it is so distinct a species or plant as he indicates. It has certain characters in common with V. laevis, V. parviflora, V. carnosula, Hook, f., and V. vernicosa, Hook, f., as these occur in my Herbarium, collected by Dr. Sinclair, in Tarndale, Nelson, and so named by Dr. Hooker. None of these species are, according to the specimens I have examined, quite "easily recognised." Nor do their characters, in all respects, correspond to those assigned to them in the "Handbook." Of the five species in question, V. vernicosa, however, appears to me more distinct than any of the others.

The classification of the group to which they belong, as given by Dr. Hooker in the "Handbook," (p. 205,) is not quite precise; and I doubt, indeed, whether in such a classification – in so variable a genus – absolute precision is attainable. The following characters, on which the division of the group is more or less founded (as well as other characters), are inconstant, and in virtue of being so, are insufficient for the purposes of such classification, viz. –

1. Leaf; form; entireness; acuteness or obtuseness of apex; texture.
2. Bracts; size.
3. Raceme; simplicity or complexity.
4. Flowers; number and size.

XII. – GEN. COPROSMA.

Its species are for the most part extremely variable, and but few are easily recognisable as distinct or well defined. Passage-forms between the present Book-species seem to abound, – a circumstance that appears to me to argue in favour of the establishment of more comprehensive types. The genus specially commends itself to careful study by the local Botanist, who must examine the directions, forms, and limits of variation, in the growing state, over wide areas. Some of the species are handsome Bush trees: others constitute, with species of Gaultheria, Carmichaelia, Discaria, &c., a large proportion of the "scrub" of the uplands. To some extent, the smaller species represent in Otago the Ericas and Callunas of Britain-having also the habit and habitat of some of our species of Vaccinium and Arctostaphylos.

Species 1. – C. lucida, Forst. East Taeri Bush; Stoneyhill Bush; Finegand Bush, Lower Clutha; Bush about the mouth of the Clutha, at, or sometimes below, high water level; top of the "Big rock," Saddlehill; November and December, young; (W. L. L.) One of the prevalent forest trees (along with "Red Birch" and "Red Pine,") on the shores of Thompson and Charles' Sounds, (Symms). As a forest-tree – at an elevation of 1,800 feet, about the head of

Milford Sound – also on the West Coast, (Hector). The "Broad-leaf" or "Orange-leaf" tree of the settler; terms, however, which are probably not only applied to other species of the genus Coprosma, (e.g., C. robusta, Raoul,) but to species of genera belonging to very different families – and especially to Griselinia lucida, (N. O. Corneae,) whose foliage closely resembles that of Coprosma lucida, and with which it is extremely apt to be confounded in the young, or flowerless, state. C. lucida is also known to the Otago natives as "Kalamou" (Hector); and to the North Island Maoris as "Karamu," 81 "Kakaramu," or "Karangu," 82 (Colenso.) In some of my specimens of Coprosma lucida, (e.g., from Stoneyhill Bush,) the leaf is broadly ovate, obtuse or subacuminate, subcoriaceous; petiole generally does not exceed 1/2" to 1" long; in Herbarium, the leaf assumes a dark-brown or blackish-brown colour, (which occurs also in some other species, e.g., linariifolia, and parviflora,) resembling in this respect the foliage of Loranthus, (e.g., L. Colensoi). Sometimes, however, the leaf retains in great measure the beautiful green tint of its living condition. It is 4" long, by 2" broad, glabrous, and shining or glossy above.

The trunk and branches are liable to be infested by a large cannon-ball-like Fungus – Hypoxylon concentricum, Bolt. 83 In cultivation – whether as a shrub or tree – it becomes bushy with abundant beautiful foliage, – forming one of the greatest ornaments of the gardens or shrubberies of the settlers. It is one of the many Otago bush shrubs or trees, whose introduction in Britain is worthy subject of experiment. Buchanan describes its wood as close-grained and yellow; "might be used in turnery."

Species 2. – C. rotundifolia, A. Cunn. Stoneyhill Bush; East Taeri Bush, (bearing the parasitic Viscum Lindsayi); October, young, (W. L. L.)

Varies considerably in the form and size of the leaf, as well as in other particulars. In Stoneyhill specimens, the leaf is larger and broader than in those from East Taeri Bush; frequently broader than long; distinctly acuminate, though sometimes notched at the apex, instead of being pointed; from orbicular-oblong to broadly-lanceolate; very coriaceous or very membranous, and all gradations between stout and delicate; petioles long or short, stout or slender; leaf 1/4-1/2" broad, seldom exceeding long; branches divaricating at irregular angles, numerous or few, lax or close, stout or slender.

Dr. Hooker, in the Handb., (p. 114,) speaks of "a scrap only" from Hector and Buchanan as the only specimen he had seen from Otago or the South Island, My plant was, however, named by himself; and it, moreover, agrees essentially with his specific description.

Species 3. – C. linariifolia, Hook. f. Saddlehill uplands; East Taeri Bush; Manuka gully, Scroggs' Hill; October and November, young; (W. L. L.)

The "Mikimik" or "Yellow Wood" of the Otago settler. A tall shrub, with erect, simple, slender branches, and sparse foliage; leaves linear-lanceolate, 1" or upwards long, – 1/8" broad, – becoming very black in drying. Its wood is said to resemble that of C. lucida, and probably to be capable of similar economical applications, (Buchanan.)

Species 4. – C. parviflora, Hook. f. (C. myrtillifolia, Fl. N.Z., pr. p.) Saddlehill uplands; top of the "Big rock," Saddlehill; in the bush about mouth of the Water of Leith, Dunedin, affected by the parasitic Loranthus micranthus; October and December, young; (W. L. L.) Common as an element of "scrub" on uplands and in the bush; but exhibiting considerable diversity of characters, according as its habitat is exposed or sheltered.

The "Mingi-mingi" 84 of the Otago settler. The commonest form of the plant on exposed uplands is a smallish, stout, erect shrub, with strong, rigid, divaricating, shortish branchlets – standing out at right angles to the main stems or branches; more or less leafy, – the leaves being, however, small and inconspicuous. In Water of Leith specimens – growing in the shelter of the forest – the twigs and leaves are glabrous, branches stout, sparingly leafy; leaves blackish-brown or black when dry, especially on upper surface; very coriaceous; scarcely exceed long, – oblong-ovate, obtuse, with rounded tip, scarcely petioled, flat, rigid.

What Dr. Hooker names C. propinqua, A. Cunn., in my Herbarium, from Saddlehill, seems referable to C. parviflora, and has greatly the characters of Water of Leith specimens thereof. It is a large and straggling shrub, with longish, numerous, leafy, irregular branches; very different in aspect from the ordinary hill forms, with which it occurs in the same locality.

C. parviflora appears the most variable and puzzling of all my Otago species – the chief variations relating to size and form of leaf, – stoutness of stem and branches, and divarication of the latter.

Species 5. – C. acerosa, A. Cunn. Roadsides, Greenisland; sand-dunes about mouth of the Kaikorai; in the bush, ravines of the Chain Hills; October, young, (W. L. L.) The "Tatara-hake" of the North Island Maori. A plant universally found on sand-dunes in New Zealand, (Buchanan.) Whether growing in the Bush or on exposed uplands, the shrub is very stout and rigid, forming, with other common species of Coprosma, a more or less abundant element of "scrub." The plant has frequently the appearance of a large shrubby Galium – the branches long, slender, and straggling – the leaves short, acicular or linear, and fascicled – the flowers small and inconspicuous. "A most distinct plant," says Dr. Hooker – (its peculiar heath-like leaves distinguishing it from all its co-species); a statement that can be made in regard to very few indeed of the New Zealand species of Coprosma.

XIII. – GEN. SOPHORA, (Edwardsia, Fl. N.Z.)

S. tetraptera, Aiton, var. microphylla, Jacq. (Edwardsia microphylla, Hook., Fl. N.Z.) As a bush; among scrub, uplands about Fairfield, Saddlehill; November, young. As a tree; roadside near the Taeri Ferry; December, in flower; East Taeri Bush and Greenisland Bush, (W. L. L.) Common in the skirts of the forests in all the districts I visited. Islets of the Clutha (Buchanan); in the forests of the Kaduku valley, and around the Kakapo Lake, (Hector); on the shores of the Te Anau and Manipori Lakes, (M'Kerrow); in the Makorora forests – sparingly; on the Wakatip Islands, arid generally in the Wakatip district, (Balfour); one of the chief ornaments of the Bush in the central (great Lake) districts.

The "Kowhai" of the North Island Maori; the "Kowai" of settlers, – or as the word is variously corrupted and spelt by them, – "Goai" or "Ghoai," "Goa" or "Ghoa." According to Hector, the type is known to the Otago Maoris as "Houma;" while the term "Kowhai" is applied to var. grandiflora in common with its other varieties. Var. microphylla is also sometimes designated by the colonists the Native "Laburnum" or "Mimosa," from the similarity of its foliage, in the arboreous condition, to that of these familiar and beautiful (cultivated) European trees.

As a tree it is very graceful, having much of the habit of our Laburnum; frequently drooping also over streams after the manner of Weeping Willows. Dr. Tuke, late of Wanganui, describes the type as the only New Zealand tree, which sheds its leaves in winter. In the North Island it flowers in September; and the flowering of this and the Fuchsia tree are two of the diagnostic features of that month in the Maori calendar. The only means the Natives have or use for distinguishing the different periods of the year is to characterize each moon (of which there are thirteen in the Maori year) by the flowering of certain familiar trees and shrubs, in combination with the migrations of certain birds and the motions of certain stars.

The species is very variable, both as to the general habit of the plant, whether as tree or shrub; and in regard to the size of the flower – the size and form of the leaflets – and the sparseness of both flowers and foliage. In order to study its variations, leisurely at home, in a state of cultivation, I caused to be sown under glass, in the spring of 1863, some seed, collected in the Silver Stream valley in January 1862, by my friend the Rev. William Will, of East Taeri Manse. The first set of seeds sown did not come up; and this being attributed to their not having been prepared for germination by steeping in warm water, the second set was steeped for a fortnight in a hot house tank – the average temperature of the water in which is 100° – sometimes rising to 120°. This procedure proved successful, in so far as the second series sown came up, though slowly;

whereas no other native Otago seeds brought home by me, and sown under circumstances otherwise the same, except as to the steeping, germinated.

Two of the "Kowai" plants so raised had attained, after three years' growth in the shelter of a greenhouse, a height of about 4 1/2 feet. The following characters were observed in my seedlings (of four years' old): No flower has yet appeared; the foliage is sparse, and readily falls off under changes of temperature; the stem and branches are markedly zig-zag, repeatedly and oppositely geniculate, bending suddenly in opposite directions or at right angles to each other; they are very tough, and also very glabrous, shining, and of a wax-yellow colour. The general character of the shrub is very twiggy, and almost leafless or naked – so sparse and so minute is the foliage; the ultimate ramuscles, with the leaf-petioles and under surface of the leaflets, are sub-tomentose, with short, silky hairs; leaflets generally in four or five pairs, very small, broadly obcordate or sub-orbicular, notched at tip; leaves 1/2" to 1" long, petiolate and delicate.

Horticulturists, who are familiar with the trees in question in cultivation in this or other countries, unanimously regard Dr. Hooker's single species as too comprehensive, and as improperly including the old Edwardsia microphylla, Jacq.; E. grandiflora, Salisb; E. Macnabiana, and E. pulchella of Florists. Mr. Gorrie, for instance, who has for many years given special attention to the acclimatisation in this country of the hardier New Zealand trees and shrubs, writes me (January 1867). "That Dr. Hooker should consider all these as mere varieties is one of the botanical puzzles, which cultivators cannot understand." Gorrie regards microphylla as sufficiently distinguished from grandiflora, and the other two species, or pseudo-species, of Edwardsia, by the following permanent characters: – Small leaves; zig-zag, slender branches, and their loose ramification. Gorrie's microphylla, as cultivated by him at Trinity, is undoubtedly my Otago plant. From New Zealand seed ascribed to microphylla, Mr. Macnab has raised two shrub-trees, which he regards as separate species; but I have not myself seen them. Charles Moore, F. L. S., Director of the Botanic Garden of Sydney, N. S. W., regards microphylla and grandiflora as quite distinct. He has found that seedlings from the same part of New Zealand, raised in Sydney, show very different capability of cultivation; for while one thrives, the other dies.

In the Botanic Garden of Edinburgh; the Kinnoull Nursery, Perth; Mr. Gorrie's garden at Trinity, and elsewhere, I have had an opportunity of examining specimens – in various stages of growth – at least of Edwardsia grandiflora, E. microphylla, and E. pulchella. The latter, as a seedling, seems familiar to nurserymen; it has quite the characters of my Otago seedlings of var. microphylla, and obviously belongs thereto, It differs from grandiflora in its remarkable zig-zag branches and small leaves. In the old state – in a plant nine years' old, in the Edinburgh Botanic Garden – and occasionally in the upper branches of younger plants, there is less angularity than is common in microphylla; but it

certainly does not differ from that variety to such an extent as to deserve separate nomenclature. E. grandiflora is stated by cultivators never to exhibit zig-zag angularity of the branches or stem, and they regard it as specifically distinct. In some old plants I saw, with woody stem, the leaves are larger, and the whole foliage handsomer than in the other Edwardsias; but even in the same individual, some of the young leaves on the lower branches are to be found quite as small as in pulchella.

It would appear, then, that some cultivators have no hesitation in setting aside grandiflora as a distinct species; while others do the same as regards microphylla. There remain only Macnabiana and pulchella. Of the former I have seen no specimens; while the latter I have no difficulty in referring to microphylla. All that I have seen and heard inclines me to regard Dr. Hooker as rightly associating all the trees or shrubs in question under a single species or type. None of the Edwardsias I have seen in this country have ever flowered, though many of the trees have attained considerable age (forty or fifty years) and vigorous growth; nor have I met with any record of their yet having flowered in Britain, even when protected by glass. 85

Nevertheless, there seems abundant ground for regarding the various forms of S. tetraptera as hardy in out-door cultivation in this country. Testimony, however, is by no means unanimous; though the failures, which have occurred, may have arisen from peculiarities of local climate. The fact of the tree thriving in the rigorous climate of the interior of Otago renders it at least probable that it should also successfully withstand the winter of Britain. At all events, inasmuch as the tree is a very ornamental one, the experiment of its acclimatisation in this country deserves more general attention.

My seedlings of three years growth, reared under glass, were so shrubby and healthy, that I was induced, in the spring of 1866, to plant one of them out, so as to test its ability to stand the Scottish winter. Protected only by blanketting – a questionable advantage – it has successfully withstood the severe frosts of winter and spring, 1866-7, – having lost its foliage temporarily, but not till March, 1867. The other specimen was planted out in spring, 1867. Both specimens were exhibited at the Floral Show of the British Association, in Dundee, in September, 1867, – then both five-year-old seedlings, 4-5 feet high. Both were in vigorous growth; that which had been exposed to the winter of 1866-7 was shorter, but stouter and less handsome, than that which had had throughout its growth the benefit of green-house protection during winter. Mr. Gorrie showed me a plant that had survived several winters in the open air, in his garden at Trinity; and he tells me that young seedlings from Otago seed have stood beside walls with different exposures about Edinburgh for several winters, and were unhurt by the

frost of January, 1867. Microphylla also withstood the winter of 1860-1, on a wall at Castle Kennedy, near Stranraer; and Mr. Gorrie saw, in autumn of 1866, a plant about six feet high, standing in the open ground at West Shandon, on the Gairloch, which he was told was originally a cutting from a forty-year-old tree, grown on the banks of Loch Long, E. microphylla is grown as a hedge shrub in Jersey. E. grandiflora grows out, against walls, on the Fife coast, to a height of 10-15 feet, (Greig). On the other hand, E. grandiflora, E. Macnabiana, and E. pulchella, all formed large plants on a south wall of the Edinburgh Botanic Garden prior to the winter of 1837, when they were killed by a severe frost, which also, however, destroyed all the Arbutus, Bay Laurels, and other hardy evergreens. Mr. Macnab regards the New Zealand Edwardsias as half-hardy only; they may successfully stand, he reports, one or two winters, but are liable to be killed by severe frosts. Hence here, and in the majority of Botanic Gardens and Nurseries, these Edwardsias are to be found under glass. In Kinnoull Nursery, E. microphylla is grown in a cold pit, covered with matting. A plant so grown, twelve years old, is not taller than my five-year-old seedlings. It is far from handsome, and is represented as of extremely slow growth.

The timber of all, or some, of the forms of S. tetraptera possesses properties which render it valuable as firewood, and in the arts of construction. It is represented as very durable, hard, tough, close-grained, and sometimes handsomely marked, having a strong resemblance to Laburnum wood – an additional illustration of the comparability of the "Kowhai" tree with our Laburnum. Balfour, (C. E.) found its ultimate strength to be 170-275 lbs.; and its sp. gr. .667-1.037. The Otago settlers regard the timber of the trunk as too valuable to burn, inasmuch as it is the nearest indigenous equivalent to our Oak. It has been used to a considerable extent in the construction of bridge and wharf piles. From the old jetty of Dunedin, sound piles have been removed after twelve or thirteen years alternate exposure to the action of sea water and the atmosphere – at high and low tides, (Balfour). But at Port Chalmers, on the other hand, piles have been found eaten through in less than fourteen years by Limnoriae. Balfour recommends it as well suited for cabinet work and turnery; while Dr. Tuke says it is "too small-grained for sawing, but well suited for furniture." It is variously used also by the cartwright and carpenter. The chief use to which "Goai" timber was put in Otago, during my visit, was the constructing of posts for fencing, for which it appeared to compete successfully with "Manuka" and "Totara." In the Greenisland district, "Goai" is a good deal used as firewood, and some settlers prefer it to all other kinds. In burning, it is said to give out showers of sparks like fireworks. Balfour refers all the valuable "Goai," or "Kowhai," timber, with doubtful propriety I think, to var. grandiflora – whose trunk is said to attain large dimensions in the interior of the North Island, but rarely exceeds 12-16" in diameter in Otago.

XIV. – GEN. PHORMIUM.

This is one of the numerous genera of New Zealand flowering plants, the variations of whose species are most puzzling to the systematist; it is, moreover, one whose numerous and important economical applications render it of importance that we should possess a complete knowledge of the forms and limits of such variation, both in the wild state and under cultivation. It is well known, both to settlers and Maoris, that different varieties of the Flax plant yield very different qualities of fibre; but as yet we cannot be said to know precisely what are the botanical varieties that furnish the finest kinds. Indeed, our knowledge of the Natural History of the genus cannot be regarded as satisfactory or complete in any particular. It is impossible properly to study so large and coarse a plant in Herbarium specimens; the student must devote himself to the examination of living forms over wide areas; and therefore it is to the local botanist we must look for the correction of our present imperfect knowledge of the botany of such a plant as the New Zealand Flax. To him I would commend the following points as, inter alia, still remaining to be accurately determined: –

1. Whether there are properly three (or more) species, or only one?

2. What are the principal permanent variation-forms, or varieties –
a. In the wild state? and
b. Under cultivation f

3. What varieties or forms yield the finest qualities of fibre?

4. What is the effect of cultivation – on those varieties in reference to their fibre-produce, or in the production of varieties economically useful?

5. What are the best modes of preparing the fibre for manufacturing purposes on the large scale?

6. What are the best dyes? and what is the best mode of fixing them?

7. How far can New Zealand Flax compete, especially as regards price,
a. With rags in Paper making?
b. With Flax, Manilla, Coir, and other fibres, for Cordage?
c. With Linen, Cotton, and other fibres or hairs, for Textile fabrics?
This includes the consideration, How far, or whether, it will "pay" to cultivate New Zealand Flax.

8. Whether, to what extent, and in what forms, can any of its products be utilised in Medicine?

Dr. Hooker, in his Handbook, (p. 286,) describes two species, P. tenax, Forst, and P. Colensoi, Hook. f.; and he restricts the distribution of the former to the North Island; but I have no reason to doubt that it extends to the southern extreme of the South Island, if I am right in assigning the common New Zealand Flax of Otago to P. tenax. I visited the provinces of Otago, Nelson, Wellington, Taranaki, and Auckland. The Flax plant seemed to me essentially the same in

all; its characters were those assigned by Dr. Hooker to P. tenax 86 rather than those of his P. Colensoi. I noticed no forms corresponding with the latter species; while I saw no variations of sufficient permanence or importance to warrant, in my estimation, separate nomenclature. The common Flax of Otago appears to me to possess the characteristics of tenax, as contradistinguished from Colensoi, if these are really – or deserve to be considered – separate species; and as tenax it is hereinafter mentioned. P. Colensoi is apparently what the Maoris designate "Whakariki," (syn. "Wharariki" – "Wharaeki") according to the late Bishop Williams, of Waiapu, and which he defines variously as "a stunted kind of Flax plant," and as "a species of Flax."

Buchanan, on the other hand, describes in Otago two varieties of New Zealand flax (N.Z. Exhibition Catalogue, p. 70), viz.: –

a. Characterised by a dark red flower; triangular, erect capsules; strong, broad, erect leaves; and

b. A more slender plant, with smaller flower, inside petals greenish; capsules round, 4" long by 1" broad, drooping; leaves narrower, twisted, drooping; fibre narrower, finer.

Dr. Thomson also ("Story of New Zealand," vol. i. p. 206) speaks of one species and two varieties. Haast describes "several well marked varieties," as occurring in the mountainous western districts of Nelson. The North Island Maoris have long recognised a number of varieties, each characterised by a particular quality of the fibre it yields, each quality of fibre being used in the native manufacture of some special kind of wearing apparel. The principal sorts of cloak or mantle at present made by the Maoris from their native flax are –

1. The "Korowai," or shaggy mantle.

2. The "Kaitaka," or fine mantle; and

3. The "Pokeha," or rain cloak. 87

Of these, the variety of flax plant called "Koura" yields the best fibre for the "Korowai." Purchas and Minnis of Auckland, one of the most successful recent patentees of a process for the preparation of New Zealand flax fibre on the large scale – as well as other manufacturers – make a similar selection, using mostly the fibre of the leaf – old or young – of that variety or species known to the natives

as "Tihori," or "Tihore," – all other forms being found to yield a coarser fibre. But it remains to be determined what are the precise botanical varieties or species designated "Koura" and "Tihori," if their botanical characters are such as to warrant their separate nomenclature. Prior to the colonisation of New Zealand, each of the numerous tribes of natives in the North Island was distinguished for the manufacture of some particular kind of mat or cloak, which became, to a certain extent, its special or diagnostic badge; and each of these mats was said to be made from the fibre of a different kind (variety or species) of flax plant. Travellers and residents have described and named at least a dozen different sorts of mats so made; hence, were we to accept as of value such testimony, we should be led to the conclusion that there must be several varieties, if not species, of Phormium, in New Zealand. That there were, and are, different qualities of flax-fibre, from which such mats were, or are, made, cannot be doubted; but it is a legitimate subject of question, whether these differences are not altogether, or at least partly, due to differences – in habitat or soil, – in the mode of cultivation of the plant, or in the preparation of its fibre. The Otago settlers believe there are at least three different kinds of the native flax plant.

On the whole, I believe the purposes of science will be best subserved by establishing a single type or species, and naming only its principal permanent and and well-marked variation-forms. This nomenclature of varieties becomes of importance in such an exceptional case as that of New Zealand flax, if it can be shown that they are characterised by equally constant variations in the quality of fibre.

P. tenax, Forst. Uplands in the Greenisland district, most abundant; November and December, in flower; top of the "Big Rock," Saddlehill; Tuapeka ranges; Inch Clutha, and opposite banks of the Lower Clutha, abundant, (W. L. L.) Gullies opening upon the Clutha in the south-eastern districts, "variety, with a drooping capsule," (Buchanan). Islands and banks of the central and upper Clutha, abundant, (Pyke). Banks and "flats" of the Matukituki Kiver and Wanaka Lake, "in the greatest abundance," (Sullivan). About the mouth of the Waiau "in rank luxuriance," (M'Kerrow). Bligh Sound, luxuriant in one or two patches, (Symms). Generally common on the west coast fjords, and on or in the central ranges and valleys. This is the long-familiar "New Zealand Flax" plant or "Flax Lily;" 88 terms which must now be held to include P. Colensoi, if the latter is to be retained as autonomous.

Its distribution is sometimes extremely local or capricious. In some localities, where it might he expected, it does not occur. Symms observes, for instance, that while it grows luxuriantly in one or two patches about the mouths of some of the streams or rivers opening into Bligh Sound, it does not occur on the shores of Thompson and Charles Sound – all on the west coast. While very common in

the environs of Dunedin, it occurs in very small patches – and even these at considerable distances apart – about Oamaru (Sullivan). The same traveller states, as an illustration of local differences of climate in the interior, that at McLean's station on the Lindis River, the New Zealand flax-plant will not grow. In the northern parts of the province generally – as is the case with the "Toot" plant – P. tenax is comparatively rare. Such peculiarities of local distribution are probably dependent – in great measure at least – upon differences in the character – chemical or physical – of the soil.

The New Zealand Flax plant grows, however, on all kinds of soils – sometimes on the dry slopes of hills. It frequently occurs intermixed more or less with grass and fern, over large areas of hilly country – at elevations, however, mostly under 2000 feet. On the west coast of Nelson, Haast describes it as everywhere abundant, ranging as high as 5,500 feet on the mountains. At such elevations, considerable variation in its botanical characters must be expected. It chiefly, however, affects somewhat rich, low-lying, alluvial soils, on open swampy land or moorland. Hence, next to bush and swamp-land proper (on alluvial clays), Flax-land is regarded the most desirable for agricultural purposes. "Flax-swamps" are frequently as common as "Tussock-swamps," 89 though their soil is far from being so wet or watery. Like the "Tussock-swamps," they are frequently very "tussocky" – causing walking thereon to be extremely irregular and fatiguing.

The plant is frequently or generally social or gregarious – growing in such numbers as to form somewhat extensive jungles. These jungles, in their native state, are sometimes penetrable with as great difficulty as the primitive "Bush." The plants generally considerably overtop a man, and their strong, coarse leaves and stems oppose a formidable obstacle to his progress. These "Flax-jungles" are, however, rapidly disappearing before progressive settlement. The chief agencies of their extermination are-

1. The agricultural operations of the settler – by (a) Grubbing; or (b) Firing.
2. Cattle: and
3. Immigrant Weeds.

In "clearing" Flax-land, the plant is destroyed, on the small scale, by grubbing it up by the root; on the large scale, by burning. In the latter case, it comes up again. But if cattle are then permitted access – being very fond of the young shoots – they nip the latter off successively till the plant dies. The plant is also destroyed by being trodden down by cattle, whose hoofs break up the soil, and prepare it for the reception of the seeds of clover and the other so-called "artificial grasses," on which they are destined to feed. These alien fodder plants generally grow with great ease and rapidity – taking the place of the disappearing flax, and assisting, indeed, materially in its ultimate extermination.

Cultivation has been found to improve the plant in all respects. It grows more rapidly and luxuriantly, and yields a better quality of fibre. 90 The latter fact has long been familiar to the observant Maoris, who, before New Zealand became a British colony, and for some time subsequent thereto, were in the habit of carefully cultivating the plant for the sake of its fibre alone. Wakefield, 91 for instance, describes extensive Flax-cultivations on the table land above Ikurangi, in the North Island. The soil selected was rich, low-lying, loamy; it had originally been fern-covered; but the fern had been burned off, and flax seeds scattered in the ashes. The plants were 8 feet apart, and were growing most luxuriantly. The variety of the plant invariably found in Maori cultivations – as yielding the finest quality of fibre – was that known as "Tihore" – with leaves 10-12 feet long, New Zealand Flax is a perennial; its leaves attain full length only in the third year of its growth, – maturity being marked by their splitting at the ends. 92 Cultivation is described as easy; for, as a perennial, neither ploughing nor sowing require to be repeated." 93 This is a fortunate circumstance, of great importance in connection with future and permanent market supplies of the leaf-fibre. In cultivation in its native country, the plant yields sometimes two and a-half tons per acre of leaf; while four to five tons of the fresh leaf give one ton of available dried fibre. 94

The New Zealand settlers have a high opinion of the facility with which the New Zealand Flax-plant might be acclimatised in Britain, and in all our colonies, whether tropical or temperate. The Victoria (Australia) Acclimatisation Society also describe it as most easily grown and multiplied, and as extremely hardy, It may be grown, according to this authority, "in inundated places, not readily available for other cultivation." 95 They recommend it for cultivation without protection in the southern parts of Britain, and generally for naturalisation in all countries that have not a rigorously cold climate. That the experiment has not only been made, but has succeeded, in Britain, is proved by the fact that at a meeting of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh, in March 1850, Dr. Macdonald shewed specimens of the leaf 6 1/4 feet long, from a plant grown in the open, without protection even during winter, in Argyleshire. In Jersey, it has been found to grow luxuriantly, flowering freely in moist exposed positions, with a westerly aspect. In Guernsey, too, Dr. Sieveking mentions it among "many other rare plants of distant lands," which "luxuriate in this lovely island as if it were their home." 96 Mr. Gorrie tells me he never heard of the plant suffering from the

winter cold on the west coast of Scotland; or south of Ireland, where the leaf often attains a length of 5 to 6 feet. In other parts of Britain, however, its growth is most capricious. Thus, it is not hardy at Perth, though it grows vigorously in the open at Largo, in Fife. In the Botanic Garden of Edinburgh it is killed down some winters, while in others it grows hardily in the open. Old plants were killed down in 1837, but sprang again from the roots. This generally happens in unusually severe winters. The leaves were injured a good deal by the frost of January 1867 (Macnab). At Balgreen, near Edinburgh, it suffered very severely from the same frost; and Dr. Lowe writes to me, it "may be considered as living with us, certainly not thriving" On the whole, however, it is one of the many New Zealand plants, which must be regarded as virtually hardy in outdoor cultivation in Britain (Gorrie). As a greenhouse plant, it has long been familiar in British horticulture. I saw it at Kew in 1862 and 1865 – in the New Conservatory – but in leaf only. Like many New Zealand plants, however, it has been treated too much as half-hardy, requiring protection, if not also warmth, during winter. I have little doubt that extended experiments on its out-door growth will justify Mr. Gorrie's opinion that it is hardy, and may be grown in many parts of this country, without protection.

I found P. tenax in abundant flower in Otago in 1861-2; but the settlers tell me it flowers only once in two to four years, 97 cotemporaneously with the "Cabbage Palm," or "Ti Tree," (Cordyline australis, Hook, f., N. O. Liliaceae.) They allege, moreover, that the seasons in which these typical native plants flower are invariably fine fruit-seasons; that is, probably, they are dry and warm above the summer average. I never noticed the flower yellow in the native state of the plant.

The number of special names bestowed by the natives on different varieties and on different parts of the Flax-plant – on different qualities of the fibre, and on the leaf and fibre in various stages of conversion into cordage or textile fabrics – may be held to indicate how abundant is the plant – how familiar to the Maoris – and how important and numerous its economical applications. In Otago the general name of the plant, as a whole, is "Korari," – or as metamorphosed by the settler, pronounced and spelt "Kouraeri," or "Coradi." 98 The same term is applied in the North Island equally to the whole plant, and to the dried flower-stem when cut for rafts or other purposes; or exclusively to the flower-stalk. In the North

Island, the Flax-plant is also known as the "Harakeke," or "Herekiakia," – its usual name there. Dieffenbach defines what is obviously the same term, "Herakiaki," as "green dried flax" while "Arekeke" is "undressed flax." The lower part of the flower-stem is "Kaikaha;" the outer part of the leaf "Parakoka;" the refuse of the leaf "Hunga-hunga;" the flax, dressed or not, or scraped fibre, manufactured from the leaf, "Whitau," or "Muka." The Maori names applied to P. tenax also probably apply to P. Colensoi, which has hitherto been confounded or combined – and perhaps after all properly so – with the longer known P. tenax.

XV. – GEN. CORIARIA.

By reason of its including the too-familiar and fatal "Toot" plant, this genus is one of no secondary importance to the New Zealand colonist. Nor is it deficient in interest, on very different grounds, to the botanist. It possesses pre-eminently that attribute so characteristic of New Zealand plant-genera – Variability of species. According to the views adopted as to What is, or constitutes, a species, the New Zealand Coriariae are divisible either into, at least, four species, or are to be regarded as mere forms of a single protean type. 99 If we accept Bentham's definition of a species, (as given in his "Outlines of Botany," prefixed to Dr. Hooker's Handbook, p. xxiv.) and regard it as a reality in Nature, and not as an artificial abstraction – an arbitrary arrangement of the botanist – I cannot see that it is possible to admit of more than one New Zealand species of Coriaria, – inasmuch as it is quite conceivable that all the forms occuring in that country may have been descended from a common parent! In 1862, I examined all the Coriariae contained in the Kew Herbarium, with this result, – that I found such a continuity of variation – such a connection of so-called species by intermediate or passage-forms – that it appeared impossible to define or limit them by any permanent characters of sufficient value. 100 There seemed utter confusion between the three species recorded in the Handbook Fl. N.Z. Book-characters were found to be fallacious guides to natural forms, being of the most inconstant kind even in the same plant. Variation affected chiefly the size and form of leaf and raceme, (with all its parts,) and the annual or perennial duration of the plant, as well as its general habit. Under such circumstances, it seems to me at least quite as philosophical to establish a single comprehensive type, and regard all the New Zealand forms as variations thereof, – as to constitute four species, which avowedly pass, sometimes imperceptibly, into each other.

There are, however, obvious reasons of convenience for the latter step, though it would appear that four – instead of the three species mentioned in the Handbook – are in this case desirable or necessary. If we are to regard plant-species as mere distinctions of convenience, made by man, though not by Nature – the necessary results of strainings after classification in regard to organisms, that are frequently indefinitely variable, I concede the advisability of establishing the following four New Zealand species of Coriaria: –

Species 1. – C. arborea, 101 (C. ruscifolia, Auct. pr. p.) The "Tree Tutu;" which Dr. Hector 102 asserts is quite distinct from the common "Herbaceous Tutu," or "Tutu" proper. This is a tree, with a large trunk, whose timber is available in the arts. The wood is soft, "beautifully marked in the grain, and might be introduced with effect in light cabinetwork," (Buchanan, N.Z. Exhib. Catal., p. 66 – where, however, the plant is named as in the Handbook Fl. N.Z., C. ruscifolia). On the west coast of Otago, "great forests, one might call them, of Tree Tutu occur, and "not a plant of the square-stemmed herbaceous Tutu growing, moreover, "at all altitudes," so that it is certainly not to altitude that is to be ascribed the difference in habit between this and the following species, (Hector). It is probably to this form that Sullivan alludes as becoming a very large tree, averaging 2 feet in thickness, in the primitive west coast forests (about the forks of the Jackson and Haast Rivers). Tree Toot also occurs in the forests of the Te Anau and Manipori Lakes.

Species 2. – C. Tutu, 103 Lindsay "On the Toot Poison of New Zealand;" Proceed. British Assoc., Sect. D. (Botany), Cambridge, 1862, (C. ruscifolia, Auct. pro. max. parte.) What has hitherto been described as C. ruscifolia is apparently partly referable to the preceding; while, so far as it represents this, the common herbaceous "Tutu" of New Zealand, it is far from being well defined. Dr. Hooker describes it as perennial; while Dr. Hector asserts it is always annual 104 and angular-stemmed. The species requires revision. It may prove that it includes more than one species or more than one variety; in any case, redefinition of characters is essential.

C. Tutu, (C. ruscifolia L.,) is, or includes, the only form of the Toot plant I commonly met with in Otago. Glen Martin, Saddlehill; November, in flower, common form; among "scrub," Chain Hills; October, in flower, common form;

M'Coll's gully, seaward aspect of Saddlehill, December, in fruit (of previous season); Tuapeka ranges, abundant in some places, (W. L. L.); Tapanui ranges, and banks of the Clutha, S. E. districts, (Buchanan); in thickets at head of the Kakapo lake; among scrub, and in the bush of the interior (lake districts,) and West Coast, (Hector); on the flats and banks of the Matukituki river and Wanaka lake, "in the greatest abundance," (Sullivan); in general terms, more or less common on hill and glen sides – in bush or scrub – throughout Otago. Up to 3000 feet on Mount Egmont, Taranaki, (Buchanan). – Common on open lands, frequently intermixed with "Fern," (Pteris aquilina L., var. esculenta, Forst.); under whose shade or shelter it sends up its succulent, 105 young, spring shoots. In the Dunedin district, and generally in settled districts, the plant is fortunately fast disappearing under advancing cultivation, being displaced and replaced by the hardier alien and immigrant weeds of Britain, and other northern countries.

The too-well-known "Toot" of the Otago farmer; the "Wine-berry shrub" of the early settlers about the Bay of Islands, (according to Dr. Bennett, 106 and the "Treasury of Botany"); the "Tutu," "Tupakihi," and "Puhou" of the North Island Maoris; the "Taweku" of the Waikatos; the "Tupake" of Coromandel district; the "Tua-tutu" of Otago, (Hooker.) Of these designations, the most familiar, important, and comprehensive is "Tutu." This term appears also to be a generic or general one – indiscriminately applied to all the New Zealand Coriariae – especially, perhaps, the larger forms. Not only, however, does it refer to the plant as a whole, but in some districts, to particular products thereof. In the East Cape dialect it is applied to the juice of the "Berry" (so-called – but which really consists of the short triangular petals, that, after flowering, become fleshy – are closely appressed to the carpels – or "seeds" so called – and when ripe are full of a luscious purple juice.) Dieffenbach again defines "Tutu" as a "Wine made from the Berries of the 'Tupakihi.'"

The specimens I collected were unquestionably perennial; in some localities I gathered the young shoots of the same year, while in others I found the fruited, shrubby, woody plants of a previous year. The following were the chief Variations of character in the series collected within a limited area by myself: –

Leaves sometimes not quite opposite, or irregular as to site; upper amplexicaul, others sessile; none distinctly petioled; frequently unsymmetrical, irregularly expanding or sublobate at base; varying from ovate through oblong-ovate into broadly lanceolate; length generally 1" to 2", breadth 3/4" to 1"; frequently acuminate, tapering sometimes to a longish point, varying, however, in its distinctness

and length; nerves vary from three to six; three are generally distinct on upper surface., sometimes only distinct on lower; seldom five, but sometimes on under surface of a broad leaf six are perceptible; occasionally no distinct neuration save the midrib, or there is only one nerve; while, on the other hand, there may be as many as seven to nine visible on the under side, or it may be marked by reticulation arising from the repeated subdivision of six to eight delicate irregular nervures; in Herbarium sometimes dry to a blackish olive, especially the young shoots, 107 and on the upper surface, or they may acquire a general yellow tinge, or yellow-mottled appearance on the same surface. Stem grooved. Racemes – pubescence sometimes very slightly marked; general length 3 1/2" to 4"; Pedicels under 1/4", sometimes so short as to be scarcely perceptible, varying in length on same plant; distinctly bracteolate, bracts lanceolate; flowers more or less closely arranged. 108

In plants bearing old fruit of a previous season, the fruit is sometimes nearly as closely arranged as in the cylindrical spike of a Plantago; achenes more reniform and less compressed than in the type; with the sepals, become blackish-brown; racemes sometimes closely clustered, and containing flowers more numerous and more densely arranged than is common; leaf longer in proportion to breadth, of paler colour, more coriaceous, frequently obtuse at tip, generally with only three nerves visible, either on upper or under surface; stems woody.

The variation in my Otago plants, however, is inconsiderable as compared with what I have observed in Nelson specimens collected by Dr. Sinclair, which are, in great measure, passage-forms into C. thymifolia. In Tarndale specimens, belonging apparently to the ruscifolia type, the leaves approach those of my Otago plants – with generally three nerves – having a tendency to a lanceolate form – their colour more natural – the racemes laxer and fewer-flowered – the pedicels longer.

From the same district of Nelson, I have seen various forms, which it is impossible to arrange either under ruscifolia or thymifolia, as these are defined by Dr. Hooker. They partake of the characters of both, – larger plants a great deal than thymifolia, with lanceolate leaves very different in size and form from those already described as belonging to ruscifolia; they are indeed passage-forms. The plant must be several feet high, for the mere branches in my Herbarium are over 1 foot long: it is a very handsome shrub, with generally regular foliage. The leaf, however, varies much in size even on the same plant; it is lanceolate, acute; length 1 1/4", breadth less than; on the larger leaves three nerves – a central and two

sub-marginal; in the smaller leaves, frequently only one nervure, and that indistinct; upper always more linear and smaller than lower; some of the stem-leaves semi-amplexicaul, and more ovate than the others; racemes less pubescent than in many other forms of ruscifolia, lax, few-flowered, long; flowers about as large as in ruscifolia, but achenes more symmetrical – more compressed and paler in colour. The difficulty of deciding whether such plants are to be regarded as small-leaved forms of ruscifolia, or large-leaved forms of thymifolia, illustrates the present unsatisfactoriness of the characters of these Book-species.

Like so many of the arboreous and herbaceous Phaenogams of Otago, Toot exhibits certain peculiarities of local distribution. For instance, it is "curious to remark," says Sullivan, that the whole country between the Otamitita River and the Lindis Gorge, in the northern interior, is entirely free of it; while it occurs only in one locality in the environs of Oamaru. In the northern parts of the province generally, it may be said indeed to be absent. In other localities, again – in the south and west – it frequently forms what the settlers call "natural shrubberies," covering extensive areas.

Species 3. – C. thymifolia, Humb. The "Tutuheuheu," (Manteli) or "Tutu-papa," (Colenso) of the North Island Maoris. Western slopes of Flagstaff, and in Silver-stream valley, December; where it appeared to me to be simply a hill-form of ruscifolia. In all Herbaria I have examined, I have found numerous forms connecting this on the one hand with ruscifolia, and on the other with angustissima. In the Herbarium of Dr. Sinclair, at Auckland, I found specimens labelled C. thymifolia from Tarndale, Nelson – some of which had leaves approaching in size those of ruscifolia, while in others they were so small as to approach angustissima. It is obviously indeed a passage form between the ruscifolia and angustissima types, Dr. Hector describes it as a small-leaved rigid plant, with the habit of a Vetch, found only on the Waitaki, and in a few other localities in Otago. Buchanan describes its branches as "always flat;" and he regards it as "certainly different" from the following species.

Species 4. – C. angustissima, Hook. f. Is uniformly regarded by the colonists as a separate species. Dr. Hector says, this is "totally distinct from the rest, having a light feathery form, with drooping leaves, which resemble those of "Manuka," (species of Leptospermum), and are much smaller and much more linear than in any of the other species it occurs generally by the sides of streams, and is found at all elevations from the sea level up to 2000 feet, associated frequently with one or other of its co-species. It would thus appear not to be an alpine form merely of any of the other species. Buchanan describes it as in form "like a bottle-brush, with fine line-like leaves." This description does not, however, agree with the characters of any Herbarium specimens I have seen.

This small and narrow-leaved, diminutive, inconspicuous plant has a very different aspect from the large-leaved, large-berried tree-which is frequently as

large as our Elder; nevertheless, I have met with all the intermediate links that connect the two, not only in New Zealand, but in South American, and other suites of, specimens in various public and private Herbaria.

Genus Coriaria. – If only typical or extreme forms be examined, the student will have little difficulty in accepting the foregoing as good species, well distinguished from each other by habit. But if he extend his observation to large suites of Herbarium specimens – and still more to forms in the living state over wide areas – he will not fail to find them connected by transition-states, which he will frequently be puzzled to refer to one Book-species rather than another, partaking, as they do, of the characters of two or more of these species. He will find that where Nature does not draw lines or set limits, the Systematist does, and he will fruitlessly endeavour to discover, perhaps, on what principles such arbitrary demarcation or classification is based.

Some of the forms of the Toot plant are both ornamental and hardy in cultivation in this country. There is good ground for supposing that they might be introduced with advantage to a much greater extent than at present. I found the ordinary Toot of Otago – (type of C. Tutu, with a medium-sized leaf) – growing well in the open, against walls, at Trinity, near Edinburgh. Seedlings, cultivated by Mr. Gorrie at the base of walls with both northerly and southerly exposures, withstood the cold of last (1866-7) and the three preceding winters; though the leaves and shoot-points were killed by the frost of January 1867. The New Zealand Toot seems as hardy as the South European C. myrtifolia. The shoots of both are sub-herbaceous, and though killed by certain severe frosts, the loss is replaced by a new growth from the root.

I have to repeat that the genus Coriaria, as it occurs in New Zealand, requires careful revision by local Botanists; to whom I would commend, as specially deserving their attention, such points as the following: –

1. Is it possible, or proper, to establish, by characters of sufficient permanence and value, the four species already mentioned? or,

2. Is it preferable to regard them as mere forms of a most variable single type?

3. What are the prominent directions, forms, and limits of variation in New Zealand; and as contrasted, e.g. with South American species?

4. What species or varieties are annual or perennial, or both?

63 Vide Page 17.

64 Vide Plate I. of present Memoir.

65 "On the Mountains and Glaciers of Canterbury, N.Z." Journal of Geographical Society, vol. 34, (1864,) p. 95.

66 In a letter to me, Dr. Hooker records its occurrence in Otago; but the locality is not specified.

67 Vide Plate III of the present Memoir.

68 Vide Plate III of the present Memoir.

69 A term defined by Dieffenbach as "Thorns, Blackberry," – a description at least partly applicable, and with greater propriety, to Discaria Toumatou.

70 Jurors' Reports, p. 74.

71 "Toot": in British and Foreign Medico-Chir. Review, page 162.

72 Mr. Sadler, of the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, writes me regarding it, [December, 1867] – "So named by Mr. Macnab, but never described. He met with it some years ago in Chelsea Botanic Garden as an undescribed species, and he issued it to his correspondents under A. Novae Zelandiae, by which name it is now known in all Nurserymen's Catalogues."

73 Vide Foot Note t, page 58.

74 Catalogue of "Alpine Plants and Hardy Perennials," issued by James Backhouse & Son, 1865.

75 The true A. ovina, A. Cunn., is an Australian and Tasmanian species, described in Hooker's "Flora of Tasmania," vol. I, page 115. I believe that all the Australasian forms of Acaena in cultivation in this country require re-examination and description. There is apparently a great confusion of species and varieties; and of Australian, Tasmanian, and New Zealand forms.

76 A term also applied to the very different plants Haloragis micrantha, Br,; Bolbophyllum pygmoeum Lindl.; and Pittosporum cornifolium, A. Cunn.

77 "On the Hybridization or Crossing of Plants" – Transactions of Botanical Society of Edinburgh, vol. IX., p. 112.

78 Known also in the North Island as "Kokomuku," (Colenso.)

79 In Ansted and Latham's "Channel Islands," (p. 492,) it is stated that V. salicifolia, and V. elliptica, (sub nom. V. decussata of Florists,) are hardy in Guernsey; "bear exposure to wind nearly as well as indigenous plants;" "seed abundantly;" "self-sown seeds occasionally springing up naturally in the open ground."

80 In Ansted and Latham's "Channel Islands," (p. 492,) it is stated that V. salicifolia, and V. elliptica, (sub nom. V. decussata of Florists,) are hardy in Guernsey; "bear exposure to wind nearly as well as indigenous plants;" "seed abundantly;" "self-sown seeds occasionally springing up naturally in the open ground."

81 Also applied to C. foetidissima, Forst., and G. robusta.

82 Also applied to C. foetidissima.

83 "Otago Fungi," p. 20.

84 A term also applied, according to Colenso, to Leucopogon fasciculatus, A. Rich.

85 In Ansted and Latham's "Channel Islands," (p. 492,) it is stated that Edwardsia grandiflora and microphylla are hardy, and "seed abundantly" in Guernsey.

86 A medium-sized specimen, about 6 feet high – including both flowering stem and leaves – cut by me in Glen Martin, Saddlehill, Otago, in December, 1861 – is to be found in the Museum of Science and Art, Edinburgh. [Catalogue of Industrial Department, 1867, p. 58.]

87 The following other Mats are described in the Juror's Reports (section on Native Manufactures, p. 323), of the New Zealand Exhibition of 1865: –
"Taupo."
"Pureki."
"Kotikoti."
"Toi."
"Kupura."
"Pukupuku."

88 "Treasury of Botany," 1866.

89 Vide Otago Glumaceae, p. 74.

90 Jurors' Reports of the New Zealand Exhibition of 1865, p. 115.

91 "Adventures in New Zealand from 1839 to 1844."

92 Jurors' Reports of the New Zealand Exhibition of 1865, p. 114.

93 Jurors' Reports of the New Zealand Exhibition of 1865, p. 115.

94 Jurors' Reports of the New Zealand Exhibition of 1865, p. 115.

95 Seemann's Journal of Botany, vol. iii. p. 160.

96 "On Guernsey as a Winter resort," "Lancet," November 30, 1867, p. 666.

97 Once in three years, according to the Jurors' Report of the New Zealand Exhibition of 1865, page 114.

98 The letter r, in certain circumstances in the Maori language, has the sound of our d. This is exemplified in the familiar words "Kauri," – pronounced "Kowdi," – (Dammara australis, Lamb.); and "Puriri," – pronounced "Puridi," (Vitex littoralis, A. Cunn.)

99 I found the opinion that there are three "kinds" of "Toot" unanimous among the more observant settlers alike of Otago and Auckland, (representing Wanganui, Raglan, Coromandel, Kaipara Hokianga, and other districts in the latter province.

100 For detailed results, vide "Toot," p. 156-7.

101 The fact that a plant, or its root, is annual, biennial, or perennial, is, obviously, per se, an insufficient specific distinction; for cosmopolite species, traced over large areas – especially those that become weeds or are cultivated – are sometimes found to occur in all these conditions, (e.g.. Geranium dissectum, L. Hook. Handb. Fl. N.Z., page 36; Cardamine hirsuta., L., Handb., page 12: Cotton is annual in the comparatively cold climate of the American states, while in the warmer latitudes of Egypt, India, and Australia, it becomes perennial.)

102 Letter of October 13, 1865.

103 I am not in possession of sufficient material to enable me to draw up a proper Diagnosis of this or the other three species herein named.

104 The fact that a plant, or its root, is annual, biennial, or perennial, is, obviously, per se, an insufficient specific distinction; for cosmopolite species, traced over large areas – especially those that become weeds or are cultivated – are sometimes found to occur in all these conditions, (e.g.. Geranium dissectum, L. Hook. Handb. Fl. N.Z., page 36; Cardamine hirsuta., L., Handb., page 12: Cotton is annual in the comparatively cold climate of the American states, while in the warmer latitudes of Egypt, India, and Australia, it becomes perennial.)

105 The degree of succulence of these Asparagus-like shoots may be estimated by the amount of water they contain, as determined by their loss of weight in drying. Skey ascertained this to be 86 per cent; while in all other parts of the plant the watery constituents were less – varying from 57 per cent, upwards, (being least in the root.)

106 "Wanderings in Australia."

107 Woody, shrubby specimens in fruit have generally more coriaceous leaves of somewhat natural colour; while young shoots or flowering twigs have membranous delicate leaves, which readily become blackish in drying.

108 The dominant form of the plant, as I met with it in Otago, is well represented in a wood-cut (copied from Plate 2470, No. 446 of "Curtis' Botanical Magazine") of C. sarmentosa, in the "Farmer," Edinburgh, October 11, 1865, p. 857.

[Bibliography, Index, Plates]

BIBLIOGRAPHY,

[REFERENCES TO AUTHORS AND WORKS QUOTED.]

I. Dr. HOOKER.

1. Flora Novae Zelandiae, vol. i. – Phaenogams and Ferns, 1853. vol. ii. – Other Cryptogams, 1855.

2. Handbook of the New Zealand Flora, vol, i. – Phaenogams and Ferns, 1864, vol. ii. – Other Cryptogams, 1867.

II. Dr. NYLANDER.

1. Lichenes Novae Zelandiae, quos ibi legit Anno 1861 Dr. Lauder Lindsay, Journal of Linnean Society (Botany), vol. ix, p. 244.

III. Dr. LAUDER LINDSAY.

CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE NATURAL HISTORY OP NEW ZEALAND,

I. GENERAL NATURAL HISTORY:

1. Place and Power of Natural History in Colonisation; with special reference to Otago.
Lecture published in Dunedin, in 1862; Abstract in Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, April and July, 1863.

II. GEOLOGY:

2. Illustrations of the Geology and Mineralogy of New Zealand.
Programme of Conversazione of Royal Society of Edinburgh, February, 1863.

3. Geology of the New Zealand Gold Fields:
Otago; and Auckland.
Proceedings of British Association, Section C. (Geology), 1862. Journal of Royal Geological Society of Ireland, vol. i, 1865, p. 49.

4. Tertiary Coals of New Zealand.
Transactions (vol. xxiv, p. 167,) and Proceedings (vol. v, p. 374,) of Royal Society of Edinburgh.

III. BOTANY:

5. Contributions to the Flora of Otago.
Transactions of Botanical Society of Edinburgh, vol. viii, p. 250, 1865.
Proceedings of Royal Society of Edinburgh, vol. v, p. 434.

6. Enumeration of Phaenogams and Ferns collected in Otago.
Seemann's Journal of Botany, vol. iv, p. 226.

7. Enumeration of Cryptogams collected in Otago.
Transactions of Botanical Society of Edinburgh.
(a) Ferns, Lycopodiaceae, and Marsileaceae, vol. ix, p. 27.
(b) Mosses and Hepaticae, vol. ix, p. 22.
(c) Lichens, vol. viii, p. 349.
(d) Fungi, vol. ix, p. 13.
(e) Marine Algae, vol. viii, p. 420.

8. Relations of the Southern to the Northern Flora, of New Zealand.
Proceedings of British Association, Section D. (Botany), 1865.

9. Toot Plant and Poison of New Zealand.
Proceedings of British Association, Section D. (Botany), 1862.
British and Foreign Medico-Chirurgical Review, July 1865.
Seemann's Journal of Botany, vol. i, p. 247.

10. Glumaceae of Otago.
Transactions of Botanical Society of Edinburgh, vol. ix, p. 63.

11. Obstacles to the Utilization of New Zealand Flax.
Proceedings of British Association, Section F. (Economic Science), 1867;
Seemann's Journal of Botany, vol. v, p. 341.

12. Observations on New Lichens and Fungi collected in Otago; with two plates (coloured lithographs)-116 figures.; 4to.
Transactions (vol. xxiv, p. 407,) and Proceedings (vol. v, p. 527,) of Royal Society of Edinburgh.

13. Observations on New Zealand Lichens; with 4 plates (coloured lithographs) – 146 figures; 4to.
Transactions of Linnean Society, vol. xxv, p. 493.

14. New or Rare Cryptogams from Otago.
Transactions of Botanical Society of Edinburgh, vol. viii, p. 280.

15. New Species of Melanospora from Otago; with a lithograph plate – 5 figures.
Transactions of Botanical Society of Edinburgh, vol. viii, p. 426.

16. Diatomaceae of Otago.
Journal of Linnean Society (Botany), vol. ix, p. 129.

17. Protophyta of New Zealand.
Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science, April, 1867.

III. BOTANY-Continued:

18. New Zealand Carrageen.
Transactions of Botanical Society of Edinburgh, vol. ix, p. 138.

19. Conservation of Forests in New Zealand.
Proceedings of British Association, Section D. (Botany), 1867.
Seemann's Journal of Botany, vol. vi, 1868.

20. Addenda to the Cryptogamic Flora of Otago.
Transactions of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh, vol. ix, p. 201.

IN PREPARATION.

Papers relating to –

1. The Forests of Otago.

2. Observations on Otago Trees.

3. Observations on Otago Phaenogams – [illustrative mainly of Variations of the Individual from the "Character" of the "Species."]

4. Observations on Otago Compositae.

5. Contributions to the Climatology of Otago.

6. Contributions to the Physical Geography of Otago.

7. Contributions to the Geology of Otago.

8. Contributions to the Geographical Botany of Otago.

9. Contributions to the Economic Botany of Otago.

10. Immigrant Flora of Otago.

11. Comparative Superiority of the Introduced (British) Grasses.

12. Catalogue of the Maori and Settlers Names of Otago Plants.

13. Addenda to the Cryptogamic Flora of Otago [Micro-Fungi and Micro-Lichenes].

14. Desiderata of the Otago Flora.

15. Properties and Products of the New Zealand Flax Plant.

EXPLANATION OF PLATES.

In the four following Plates are figured five new species 109 of flowering plants contained in my Otago Herbarium, collected in 1861, – and referred to in my "Observations on Genera and Species" (pp. 48, 52, 53, 54). Only one of these is at present known to occur in the North Island, viz., Aciphylla Colensoi, Hook. f.; so that four are – provisionally at least – referable to the Southern or South Island 110 Flora.

Three of them, viz., Viscum Lindsayi, Oliver; Celmisia Lindsayi, Hook. f.; and Poa Lindsayi, Hook. f. were found by myself for the first time. They are not as yet known to occur elsewhere than New Zealand; so that they are absolutely new to science. 111

Crepis Novae Zelandiae, Hook. f. had previously been found on Queen Charlotte's Sound (in the Province of Nelson), and on the Alps of Canterbury (up to 3000 feet); and Aciphylla Colensoi in various parts of the Alps of the South and North Islands (up to 6000 feet.)

Their specific diagnoses, as well as their relations to other New Zealand species or genera, may be best understood by consulting Dr. Hooker's "Handbook." Some of my Otago plants being too young to furnish full characters for description, especially as to fruit, I examined, in 1865, all the specimens of the species now figured then contained in the Hookerian Herbarium, Kew; but I can add nothing of consequence to the descriptions given by Dr. Hooker in his "Handbook."

The Drawings and Dissections were made by Mr. Fitch, F.L.S., of Kew, from specimens selected and lent by Dr. Hooker – as the most illustrative and perfect ones – from the series of New Zealand plants contained in the Kew Herbarium; which is, I believe, much richer in this group of plants than any other Herbarium, public or private, in the world. The Dissections were made under Dr. Hooker's direction, and are the result of the examination of a great number of different specimens.

My best acknowledgments are due to Dr. Hooker, not only for his kindness in selecting and lending to the Artist the said specimens, and supervising the said Drawings and Dissections, but for the indispensable and invaluable aid he has

afforded me throughout my researches on the Otago Flora, since my return from New Zealand in 1862; as well as for the facilities he has always offered me for access to the treasures of Kew, and for all other personal courtesies or kindnesses, 112 I have also to express my obligations to Mr. Fitch – the "facile princeps" of professional Botanical Draughtsmen in this country – for his faithful and admirable rendering of the Drawings and Dissections.

The Botanist will not, of course, expect the Drawings in all respects to correspond to the descriptions given of the plants here figured in the "Handbook." Both drawings and descriptions may be, and doubtless are, perfectly accurate; but the former represent Individuals, and the latter Species; and slight differences in details are therefore inevitable.

Plate I. ACIPHYLLA COLENSOI, Hook. f.

Fig. a. Portion of flower-stem; showing flower-umbels and bracts.
b. Mature male flower; showing the stylopodia.
c. Young male flower; showing the incurved petals.
d. Stylopodia of male flower.
e. Female flower; showing its stylopodia.
f. Female flower; approaching the maturescence of the fruit.
g. Portion of flowering-stem; showing the fruit-umbels.
h-i. Ripe fruit, lateral and front views.
j. " " transverse section.
k. Leaf.
Figs. a, g, and k are of natural size; all other figures are variously magnified. The inflorescence is much narrower and more spear-shaped in my Otago plant than is represented in the Plate.

Plate II. VISCUM LINDSAYI, Oliver; parasitic on Metrosideros Hypericifolia, A. Cunn.: both plants of natural size.

The Drawings are from young plants, in flower, collected in December 1861; and the Dissections are not, therefore, so complete (especially as to fruit), or so numerous, as they would have been had a full series of flowering and fruiting specimens been before the artist.

Fig. a. Branch; twice natural size; showing –

1. Its leafless character.

2. The constituent joints – flattish – greatly constricted at each articulation; obovate or oblong-ovate; longer than broad.

3. Flowers very minute; spiked on the branch-joints.

Fig. b. One of the branch-joints with its flower-spikes; four times natural size; showing the jointed flower-peduncle.

c. Flower-perianth; about sixteen times natural size; three-lobed; lobes persistent.

Plate III. Fig. I. CELMISIA LINDSAYI, Hook. f.: natural size.

This species does not appear yet to have been found by any other collector, or in any other locality, in New Zealand.

Fig. a. Female ray-floret.
b. Hermaphrodite disc-floret.
c. Achene.
d. Arms of Style.
e. Stamen.
f. Bristles of Pappus.
Figs. a to f are more or less magnified.

Figs. II. CREPIS NOVAE ZELANDIAE, Hook. f.

The two figures represent its extremes of growth; a the larger, and b the smaller, or dwarf, form – both of natural size. The Drawings are from Canterbury specimens. The apex of the leaf in the larger form is usually more obtuse and obovate than is represented in the Plate.

Fig. c. Floret.
d. Arms of Style.
e. Achene.
f. Hairs of Pappus.
Figs, c to e are more or less magnified.

Plate IV. POA LINDSAYI, Hook. f. (Lindsay, Otago Glumaceae, p. 70.)

Since I collected it in 1861, it has been found in the Central Lake districts of Otago, and in various parts of the Hill-regions of Canterbury – up to an altitude of 4000 feet. It will probably be found to be a common subalpine or alpine pasture-grass throughout the South Island.

Figs, a and b represent its extremes of growth; a the taller, b the smaller, form; both of natural size.

Dr. Hooker writes me, that while his description of this species in the "Handbook" (p. 340) was passing through the press, he received additional specimens, which required him to modify somewhat the specific characters as contrasted with those given in the Key to the genus Poa – then already printed off (p. 337).

Hence it will be found that there are certain contradictions or discrepancies in trivial details between the characters given in the "Handbook," at pages 337 and 340 respectively. He describes the paleae as blunter than the representation here given by the artist; but "the general habit and character he (the Artist) has given admirably."

Fig. c. Portion of Leaf-sheath, showing the ligule.
d. Spikelet.
e. Glumes.
f Hermaphrodite floret.
g. Organs of reproduction, showing-
Stigma Ovary (Pistil) Stamens Scales.
h. Scale or Squamule.
Figs, c to h are more or less highly magnified.

ADDENDUM ANENT THE GENDER OF THE BOTANICAL NAMES OF VARIETIES.

In my "Enumeration of Plants Collected," (p. 36), and elsewhere in the present Memoir, I have followed Hr. Hooker (or other authors) in using the neuter or masculine terminations for the Latin names of Varieties, where the Generic substantive is neuter or masculine. It appears to me, however, grammatical accuracy requires in all cases the gender of the name of the variety to correspond with that of the Latin term, or implied sub-name, "Varietas," which is feminine. The reader will find, in the "Enumeration" referred to, var. (i. e., Varietas) vestitum; var. costatum; var. Magellanicum; var. tenue; var. multiscapus; var. glaber, &c.; in all which cases it seems to me the termination should have been feminine. From inattention to some uniform and simple grammatical rule, most Catalogues of Plants and Systems of Botany abound in instances of the abbreviation var. ( – Varietas, feminine) followed by adjectives terminating in neuter and masculine, as well as feminine, affixes! There should at least be some uniformity of principle and practice on the part of Nomenclators and Systematists. Obviously, it is impossible that Asplenium bulbiferum var. laxa and var. tripinnata (Handb. Fl. N.Z., p. 373), on the one hand, and Aspidium aculeatum var. vestitum (Ibid. p. 375), or Ranunculus lappaceus var. multiscapus (Ibid. p. 7), on the other, should be equally correct – grammatically or otherwise.

There is an equal diversity and confusion of practice as regards the initial letter of the adjective designations of Species or Varieties, where these are derived from proper names (e.g. of places or things): – some authors using capitals – a practice which appears to me to possess an advantage. Whatever be, however, the relative advantages or disadvantages of the use of capital, or small, initial letters, there ought at least – as in the other case (of genders) – to exist some intelligible and simple uniformity of practice. There seems no good or sufficient reason why the names of persons should be selected for exemption or exception from the rule, which is applied to all other specific or varietal names.

INDEX.

I. – NAMES OF OTAGO PLANTS.

A. – SCIENTIFIC NAMES: GENERA, SPECIES, AND VARIETIES.

Acaena . . . 46, 57
Acerosa (Coprosma) . . . 72
Aciphylla . . . 48
Angustifolia (Aciphylla) . . . 48, 50
Angustissima (Coriaria) . . . 87
Antipoda (Gaultheria) . . . 64-5
Arborea (Coriaria) . . . 84
Astelia . . . 53
Australis (Rubus) . . . 54
" " (Cordyline) . . . 82
Buxifolia (Veronica) . . . 67-8
Carmichaelia . . . 46, 57
Carolinianum (Geranium) . . . 62-3
Celmisia,. . . . 52
Cissoides (Rubus) . . . 55-7
Colensoi (Aciphylla) . . . 48-51, 92-3
" " (Gaultheria) . . . 65
" " (Phormium) . . . 77-9, 83
Concentricum (Hypoxylon) . . . 71
Coprosma . . . 46, 65, 70
Coriaria . . . 46, 83, 88
Crepis . . . 54
Decussata, (Veronica) . . . 69
Discaria . . . . 54, 57
Dissectum (Geranium) . . . 62, 64
Edwardsia . . . 73, 76
Elliptica (Veronica) . . . . 68-70
Erecta (Gaultheria) . . . 64
Fragile (Hieracium) . . . 54
Fuchsia . . . . 46, 73
Gaultheria . . . 46, 64
Geranium . . . 46, 61
Geum . . . 60
Glaber (Rubus) . . . 56
Glabratum (Geranium) . . . 63
Gracilenta (Celmisia) . . . 53
Gracilis (Wahlenbergia) . . . 66-7
Grandiflora (Sophora) . . . 73-6
Grandis (Aciphylla) . . . . 49
Hieracium, 54
Hypoxylon . . . 71
Laevis (Veronica) . . . 67-8
Latifolia (Aciphylla) . . . . 48-9
Linariifolia (Coprosma) . . . 71
Lindleyana (Veronica) . . . 68
Lindsayi (Celmisia) . . . 53, 92, 94
" " (Poa) . . . . 92, 94
" " (Viscum) . . . 52, 71, 92-3
Longifolia (Celmisia) . . . 53
Lucida (Coprosma) . . . . 70-1
Macnabiana (Edwardsia) . . . 74, 76
Magellanicum (Geum) . . . 60
Melanospora . . . 90
Micranthus (Loranthus) . . . 72
Microphyllum (Geranium) . . . 61-2, 64
Microphylla (Sophora) . . . 73-6
" " (Gaultheria) . . . 64
Molle (Geranium) . . . . 62-4
Myrtillifolia (Coprosma) . . . 72
Novae Zelandiae (Acaena) . . . 57
" " (Crepis),. 54> 92, 94
Ovina (Acaena) . . . 58

Parviflora (Coprosma) . . . 72
" " (Veronica) . . . 68
Phormium . . . 46, 77
Pilosum (Geranium) . . . 61-2, 64
Potentilloides (Geranium) . . . 62
Propinqua (Coprosma) . . . 72
Pulchella (Edwardsia) . . . 74, 76
Rotundifolia (Coprosma) . . . 52, 71
Rubus . . . 54
Rupestris (Gaultheria) . . . 65
Ruscifolia (Coriaria) . . . . 13, 84-7
Salicifolia (Veronica) . . . 68-9
Salicornioides (Viscum) . . . 52
Sanguisorbae (Acaena) . . . 59
Sarmentosa (Coriaria) . . . 86
Saxicola (Wahlenbergia) . . . 66-7
Schmidelioides (Rubus) . . . 56
Sonchus . . . 62
Sophora . . . . . 46, 73
Speciosa (Veronica) . . . . 67-8
Squarrosa (Aciphylla) . . . 48-51
Strictum (Geum) . . . 60
Taraxacum . . . 62
Tenax (Phormium) . . . . 77-9, 82
Tetraptera (Sophora) . . . 73
Thymifolia (Coriaria) . . . 86-7
Toumatou (Discaria) . . . 49, 54
Tutu (Coriaria) . . . 84
Urbanum (Geum) . . . . 60-1
Veronica . . . . . 46, 67
Viscum . . . 52
Vernicosa (Veronica) . . . 70
Wahlenbergia . . . 46, 66

B. – MAORI NAMES.

Arekeke . . . 83
Bidi-bidi; Beta-beta . . . . 59
Goai; Ghoai; Goa; Ghoa . . . 73
Harakeke; Herekiakia; Herakiaki . . . 83
Houma . . . . . 73
Hunga-hunga . . . . 83
Hutiwai . . . . . 59
Kaikaha . . . 83
Kalamou . . . 71
Karamu; Kakaramu; Karangu . . . 71
Kokomuka; Kokomuku . . . 68
Kopata . . . 60
Korari; Kouradi; Coradi . . . 82
Korokio . . . 68
Koromiko; Korimuka; Korumeek . . . 68
Koropuku . . . 64
Koura . . .78
Kowai; Kowhai . . . . 73
Kuri-kuri . . . . 50
Matuakumera . . . 62
Mikimik . . . 72
Mingi-mingi . . . . 72
Muka . . . 83
Papaii . . . . 50
Parakoka . . . 83
Pinakitere . . . 62
Piri-piri . . . . 59
" " -kahu . . . . 59
Puhou . . . 85
Taramea . . . 49
Tatara-hake . . . . . 72
Tataramoa . . . . . 54
Taweku . . . 85
Ti . . . . . . 82
Tihore: Tihori . . . . 79, 81
Tua-tutu . . . . . 85
Tupake . . . 85
Tupakihi . . . 85
Tutu: Toot, . 13, 80, 83-6, 88, 90
Tutu-heu-heu . . . . . 87
Tutu-papa . . . 87
Whakariki: Wharariki: Wharaeki . . . 78
Whitau . . . 83

C. – SETTLERS' NAMES

Aster, New Zealand . . . 53
Bayonette grass . . . . 49
Blackberry, New Zealand . . . 54
Bloody Spaniard . . . 49
Blue Bell, New Zealand . . . 66-7
Bramble, " " . . . 54, 57
Broad leaf . . . . . 71
Burr, New Zealand . . . 59
Cabbage Palm . . . . 82
Cotton plant, New Zealand . . . 53
Flax, New Zealand, . 77, 79-80, 90-1
" " -Lily, " . . . 79
Laburnum, New Zealand . . . 73, 76
Lawyers, Bush . . . . 54
Leather plant . . . . 53
Mimosa, New Zealand . . . 73
Mistletoe, " " . . . 52
Orange leaf . . . . . 71
Spear-grass . . . 49
Supplejacks . . . . 54
Tea, New Zealand . . . . 59
Thom, New Zealand . . . . 49, 54
Toot, (Vide Tutu: – Maori names),
Tree-Toot . . . 84
Wild Irishman . . . . 54
Wild Spaniard . . . 49
Willow, New Zealand . . . 68
Wine-berry Shrub . . . . 85
Yellow-wood . . . 72

II. – GENERAL SUBJECTS.

Acclimatisation (in Britain) of New Zealand Plants, 20-1, 28, 58, 67, 71, 73, 75, 8l, 88
Acclimatisation – Experiments, 67, 75, 81, 88
" " errors in, 20, 76, 82
Agricultural Lands . . . 31, 33, 80
Alps of Otago . . . . 29
Altitudinal range of Otago plants, 48-51, 53, 62, 64, 67, 70, 80, 84, 87, 92, 94
Annual and Perennial Growth, as a specific character, 61, 81, 83-6, 88
Area of Otago botanically unexplored, 5-6, 9
Australian Physiognomy of New Zealand Plants . . . 57 (Vide also Leafless Plants).
Author's Otago Collections –
Area of . . . 10
Character and Circumstances of, 11
Catalogues of . . . . 36
Number of Species,. 44
" " New to New Zealand, 44
" " New to Otago, 44
" " British, 36-44, 62
Author's Contributions to the Botany of Otago, 16, 90
" " " Geology of " , 89
Berries; their properties and applications, 56, 85
Book-species, peculiarities of, 23, 46, 57, 61, 66, 83, 86-8
Botany in Colonisation, utility of, 14-5
Botanical ignorance; and its results in young colonies . . . . 13
Botanists, New Zealand, problems awaiting, 9, 14, l6, 46-7, 51-2, 58, 61, 65-6, 68, 70, 77, 88
Botanist, Government, appointment of, recommended . . . 9
Bramble-Wine . . . . 57
British fruits and flowers in Otago,. 28
British Physiognomy of New Zealand plants, 62
Bush, vegetation of the Otago, 52, 54, 64, 67, 70, 73, 85
Calendar, Maori, botanical elements of, 73
Cattle, destruction of, by indigenous plants, 13, 59

Characters of Species, unsatisfactoriness of, 48, 55, 58, 61-5, 70, 74, 83, 85-8, 91, 94
Climate, and vegetation, inter-relations of, 15, 25, 27-8
" " of Otago, characteristic features of, 28
" " Winter, of Otago . . . 27-8
Climates, local, in Otago . . . 27, 80
" " Artificial, in new Colonies, . 28
Clutha river . . . . . 31
" " valley, Lower, physical geography and geology of . . . 34-5
Colonial (Settler's) Nomenclature of native plants . . . 13, 53, 91 (Vide also Maori Nomenclature, corruption of,)
Colour, alterations of, in drying, 48-50, 52-3, 55-6, 60, 63-4, 69-72, 86
Cottony hairs; and their economical applications . . . . 52-3
Cryptogams collected by Author, 38, 44, 90-1
Cultivation.; and its influence
(a) in modifying specific characters, 20, 55, 67-8, 71, 73-5, 77, 81
(b) on economic value of produce, 77, 79, 81
Dangerous or troublesome native plants; to man and animals (from physical or chemical peculiarities), 13, 49-50, 53-4, 59 (Vide also Cattle, Sheep, Toot).
Deciduous character of native trees, exceptional . . . . . 73
Definition or limitation of Species, 20, 46, 55, 60-1, 64, 66, 68, 70, 83-4, 88
Definitions of Species, more comprehensive, use of,. 15, 47, 57, 66, 68, 70, 83
Describers of New Species, qualifications of, 22
Desiderata of the Otago Flora, 9, 14-5, 91
Diatoms, collected by Author,. 43-4, 90
Displacement or disappearance of indigenous vegetation, 28, 49, 51, 80, 85
" " agencies affecting . . . 80
Dunedin, Climatology, physical geography and geology of, . 25, 27, 32, 35 (Vide also Meteorology).
East Coast Flora representative,. 9, 11
Economic Botany of Otago,. 14-5, 77, 91
Edible Roots . . . 49, 62
Fence-topping . . . . 59, 62
Ferns collected by Author,. 38, 44, 90
Fern-covering of Hills . . . 80, 85
Fibres, economic value of indigenous, (Vide Flax).
Fjords of West Coast . . . 30
Flax, New Zealand, value and applications of, 77-9, 81-2
Flora, Southern, of New Zealand, contrasted with Northern, 7, 71, 77, 90, 92
" " of West Coast of Otago, 67, 69-70, 79, 84-5, 89
" " of Lake districts of Otago, 67, 73, 85
" " alpine or sub-alpine, of Otago, 49-51, 53-4, 62, 64-5, 67-8, 78, 87, 94 (Vide also Altitudinal range. Medical Botany, Economic Botany, Ornamental Plants.)
Florists' designations of New Zealand Plants, 20, 57-8, 68, 74
Florula of Otago, scheme of a, . 13-5
" " necessity for a, . 14, 16
Florulas, local, their utility . . . 13, 16
Flowering of Trees, as characteristic of the seasons in New Zealand,. 73
Flowering of New Zealand plants, peculiarities of, . 73, 75, 82
Flowering plants collected by Author, 36, 44, 90-1
Fungi collected by Author,. 42, 44-5, 90
Geographical distribution of plants in Otago, peculiarities of, 15, 49-51, 53 62, 64, 70, 77, 79, 80, 84, 87, 91-2, 94
Geology of Otago . . . 31-4, 89, 91
Geology and Vegetation, inter-relations of, 80 (Vide also Land-subsidence).
Glacier vegetation . . . 28, 50
Glaciers of Otago . . . . 29
Gorrie, views and experiments on Acclimatisation . . . . 74
Grasses collected by Author . . . 38, 90
Greenisland district; physical geography and geology of . . . 33-4
Gum-resins . . . . 49, 51
Habit, variations in,. (Vide Species, variations of).

Habitat, influence of, in modifying specific characters, 48, 53-4, 64, 72, 80. (Vide Species, variations of,)
Hardiness of New Zealand plants in cultivation in Britain, 20-1, 55, 58, 67-9, 75, 81-2, 88
Herbaria, Sectional, in public collections, importance of . . . 17-8
" " Public, centralisation of, advantages and disadvantages,. 22
Herbarium-specimens unfit for determination, 12
" " loss or destruction of, by travel, 14, 62
Hooker, Dr., Contributions to the New Zealand Flora . . . 9, 16, 89, 92
Horticulturists, views of, on "Species," 20, 74
Hybridization, results of,. 56, 67, 68
Immigrant Flora of Otago, 28, 59, 62, 80, 85, 91 (Vide also Weeds).
Inch Clutha . . . ... 31
Jungle, plants forming . . . 54, 80
" " Flax, ... 80
Lakes of Otago . . . . 30
Land-subsidence in relation to vegetation, 33
Leafless plants of Otago . . . 57, 66
Lichens collected by Author, 39-42, 44-5, 90-1
Limestone districts of Otago, peculiarities of, 32
Living forms of plants, importance of study of . . . . 14, 70, 77, 88
Lyall, Dr., Contributions to the Otago Flora, 8
Mantles or cloaks made by the Maoris, 78 (Vide also Native Manufactures).
Maori Nomenclature of Native plants, 13, 68, 82-3, 85, 91
" " " corruption of, by settlers . . . 68, 73, 82
Medical Botany of Otago,. 14-5, 77 (Vide also Purgative Native plants). Tome)
Meteorology of Dunedin . . . 25-8
Meteorological observations, importance of, in new countries . . . 27
Monstrosities of Inflorescence, . 68-9
Mosses collected by Author,. 39, 44, 90
Native (Maori) manufactures, . 78-9
Natural History Surveys of new countries, necessity for . . . . 7
Naturalised and Native plants, difficulty of distinguishing . . . 62
New Species, . 22-3, 57, 65
" " collected by Author, 6, 17, 24, 36-45, 90, 92
Nomenclature of Plants, defects in the, 95
Ornamental indigenous plants, in cultivation, 21, 49, 52, 54-5, 58, 62, 67, 71, 73, 75, 86, 88
Otago Harbour, physical geography of, 32
Parasitic Plants of Otago . . . 52, 93
Passage-forms between Species, 46, 57, 64-6, 68, 70, 83, 86-8
Pastures, native,. , 30-1, 33-4, 80
Plant-collection in new countries, importance of . . . . 14
Plants of New Zealand in the Kew Herbarium, 17, 53, 92
" " in the Edinburgh Herbarium, 18
Plants, characteristic or typical, of Otago, 49, 50, 82 (Vide also Leafless Plants.)
Protophytes collected by Author,. 44, 90
Purgative properties of native plants, 68
Revision of Book-species of New Zealand Plants, necessity for, 47, 51-2, 58, 68, 84, 88
Rivers of Otago . . . . 31 (Vide also Clutha.)
Sand-dunes, vegetation of,. 53, 62, 72
Science in colonisation, the "Cui bono?" of, 14
"Scrub," vegetation forming the, 49, 54, 65, 67, 70, 72-3, 85
Seasons in New Zealand . . . 11, 82
Seaweeds collected by Author, 42-4, 90
Seedlings, New Zealand, modes of raising, 73-4
Sheep, destruction of, by indigenous plants, 13, 53
"Snow-grasses," region of the, in Otago, 51, 53, 67
Snow-line in Otago . . . 29, 51, 53

Species, Variations of, 15, 20, 46-8, 50-1, 53-6, 58, 60-6, 68-75, 77-8, 83-7, 91, 93-5
" " Genera and Varieties, confusion of, 23, 48, 51, 55-8, 61, 65, 70, 73-5, 78, 83-4, 87
" " Reduction of, (Vide Synonymy.)
" " Typical or aggregate, substitution of, 14-5, 47, 57, 65-6, 68, 70, 83, 88
" " Unity or Plurality of, in Genera, 48, 61, 65-6, 68, 74-5, 77, 79, 83-4, 87-8
" " Unnecessary redundancy of, (Vide Synonymy.) (Vide also New Species; Book-Species; Definition of Species; Revision of Species.)
Swamps, Flax, ... 80
" " Tussock . . . 80
Synonymy, redundant and confusing, 15, 23-4, 47, 61, 68
Systems, Botanical, defects of, 23, 46, 88, 95
Taeri plain, physical geography and geology of, 33
"Terraces" and "flats" and their vegetation, 31, 33-4, 53, 85
Timbers of Otago, value and applications of, 71-2, 76, 84
Tonic properties of native plants,. 68
Toot Poison,. 13-4, 90
" " Wine . . . . . 57, 85
Tuapeka gold-field; and its vegetation, 10, 34-5, 54, 60, 89
Variation-forms, general indication of, 47, 50, 56, 64, 67, 77, 79, 83, 88
Variation, in relation to specific limitation, (Vide Species.)
Varieties, economical importance of, 77-9 " " in relation to Species, (Vide Species.)
" " ungrammatical nomenclature of, 95
" " unnecessary nomenclature of, 47, 50, 55, 63-6, 75, 78-9
Veronica-region in Otago . . . 67
Waterfalls in Otago . . . . 30
Weeds, noxious, (native,) . . 59, 68
" " (alien,) . 28, 59, 80, 84
Wild Pig, food of . . . 49
Wool, deterioration of, by indigenous plants, 59

Aciphylla Colensoi. Hook. fil.
W. Fitch, lith.
Vincent Brooks, Imp.

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Viscum Lindsayi. Oliver.
Metrosideros hypericifolia. A. Cunn.
W. Fitch, lith.
Vincent Brooks, Imp.

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Crepis Novae Zelandiae. Hook. fil. . . . Celmisia Lindsayi. Hook. fil.
W. Fitch, lith.
Vincent Brooks, Imp.

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Poa Lindsayi. Hook. fil.
W. Fitch, lith.
Vincent Brooks, Imp.

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[Page 112 is blank]

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[Back cover]

109 Vide Foot Note, p. 7.

110 Vide Foot Note, p. 17.

111 Vide Foot Note, p. 7.

112 Vide also p. 23.

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