land Institute. la a very interesting account of the genus 

 as found in New Zealand, which prefaces his tables, Mr. 

 Armstrong states that except Goprosma no other enters so 

 largely into the composition of the Floral scenery ; that all 

 the species are worthy of cultivation, and that this genus 

 alone would be sufficient to give interest and variety to the 

 botany of the country. He goes on to state that no other 

 genus presents such extreme variability ; but that he does not 

 attribute this to hybridization, for that after an examination 

 of between four thousand and five thousand specimens, and 

 a careful experimentation in the largest existing collection 

 of cultivated species, that in the Christ Church Botanical 

 Gardens, he is convinced that self-fertilization is the rule 

 in the genus, and that the theory of hybrids is untenable. 

 The seedlings, he says, invariably resemble their parent, 

 but sports occur which reproduce their own characters, 

 and that this process has given rise to the greater number 

 of the known New Zealand forms. He further adds that 

 the cultivated plants in New Zealand (presumably Euro- 

 pean) are all liable to sport, and that the introduced weeds 

 are nearly all self-fertilized. 



V. Lavaudiana was discovered in 1^40 at Akaroa, by 

 M. Eaoul, Surgeon on board the French corvette, L'Aube, 

 and is beautifully figured in his " Choix des Plantes de la 

 Nouv. Zealand." It is also a native of the Canterbury plains, 

 where it was collected by Dr. Lyall, F.L.S., Surgeon and 

 Naturalist of H.M.S. Acheron, when surveying the islands, 

 and by subsequent botanists. It was introduced into this 

 country previous to 1880 by the late Isaac Anderson 

 Henry, Esq., of Trinity, Edinburgh, who sent me a small 

 flowering branch of it in that year, and the specimen here 

 figured was kindly forwarded for figuring by Mr. Burbidge, 

 M.A., F.L.S., Curator of the College Botanical Gardens, 

 Dublin, in May of last year.— J. D. H. 



Fig. 1, Flower; 2, calyx and bracts; d, corolla and stamens; 4 and 5, 

 stamens ; 6, pistil :— all enlarged. 



