and Hook. Ic. Pl. t. 1503), from similar situations in the 
Kaffrarian mountains. 
The following account of the localities which R. Lyallii 
inhabits and other matters is extracted from notes by 
Mr. J. B. Armstrong, of Christchurch, N.Z., published 
in the “Gardener’s Chronicle.” It is confined to the 
Middle Island, extending from Canterbury, where it grows 
at 2000 to 4000 feet elevation, to Otago, where its limits 
are 1000 and 3500 feet, and grows on mountain slopes 
below the snow-fields, where the ground is usually kept 
moist during the summer from the trickling downwards of 
the melting snow, and is shaded from the mid-day sun. 
These slopes are perfectly drained by masses of rock 
beneath, and are covered by peat. It also, however, occurs 
in sand, and even in shingle. On mountains facing the 
south Mr. Armstrong has seen it “covering the ground 
for hundreds of acres with one huge sheet of pure white,” 
but it more commonly grows in patches of a score or thirty 
plants among straggling patches of Olearias, Veronicas, and 
other shrubs. An admirable wood-cut, taken from a 
photograph sent by Mr. Armstrong, of a long border 
crowded with plants of this species, accompanies his 
description, and gives an excellent idea of its habit. 
Seeds have been sent to England during the last twenty 
years by the thousand, but their germinating powers seem 
to be destroyed or retarded by the voyage, for very few 
plants have been raised from them. The late Mr. Isaac 
Anderson-Henry is said to have flowered it previous to 
1864, and remarked that the seeds lay dormant for four 
or five years; whereas in New Zealand, Mr. Armstrong 
found that they germinated in exactly eight months. 
Those, one of which produced the plant here figured 
(which flowered in April, 1886), were received per Major 
Teschkernaker, of Sydenham ; they were sown in a tropical 
heat at Kew in October, 1882, and germinated in November 
of the following year. It is known in New Zealand as the 
Lily, Water Lily, Mountain Lily, and Rookwood Lily; and 
the leaves attain a foot in diameter, and the flowers four 
inches ; these vary from snow-white, the usual colour, to 
creamy and pink, all very rare colours in the genus, except 
in species of the aquatic (Batrachium) section.—J. D. H. 
Fig. 1, 2, Stamens ; 3, young carpels; 4, head of achenes ; 5, ripe achenes :—ad/ 
but fig. 4 enlarged. 
