20 FLORA ANTARCTICA. [Auckland and 



superne concavo ; epicarpium crustaceum ; endocarpium corneum v. osseuni ; sarcocarpium suberosum. Loculi 

 3-4, valde compressi, axi contrarii. Semen parvum, late ovato-ellipticum, plano-compressum, versus axin obtuse 

 angulatum, loculum totum implens. Testa membranacea, pallide fusca. Albumen copiosum, farinaceo-corneum, 

 albidum. Embryo minutissimus, pyriformis ; radicula supera, bilo proxima ; cotyledones breves, divaricats, 

 obtusse. 



One of the most handsome and singular of the vegetable productions in the group of islands it inhabits, 

 which certainly contains a greater proportion of large and beautiful plants, relatively to the whole vegetation, than 

 any country with which I am acquainted. Growing in large orbicular masses, on rocks and banks near the 

 sea, or amongst the dense and gloomy vegetation of the woods, its copious bright green foliage and large umbels 

 of waxy flowers, often nearly a foot in diameter, have a most striking appearance. The pretty black berries on 

 the white and withered stalks of the former year's umbels form a curious contrast to the shining waxy appear- 

 ance of the rest of the inflorescence. The whole plant has a heavy and rather disagreeable rank smell, common 

 to many of its Nat. Order, but is nevertheless greedily eaten by goats, pigs and rabbits. 



Beautiful as is the plate of Aralia polaris in the French South Polar Voyage above quoted, and faithfully 

 as it represents the leaf and umbel, the insertion of both immediately upon the rooting stem, without the in- 

 tervention of branches, and the absence of the great ligules, are quite unlike what is exhibited by my specimens. 

 It is possible that the letter-press may account for this and some other apparent inaccuracies ; but although the 

 plates have been in our possession for nearly a twelvemonth, I cannot learn that any descriptive matter has 

 hitherto appeared. — The above particulars of the plant, and the analysis, were drawn up from living specimens ; 

 and although the drawings, made at the same time from the recent plant, are not of sufficient novelty to justify 

 their introduction amongst the plates of the present work, I have deemed it desirable to give them in the ' Icones 

 Plantarum' (vol. viii. tab. 701. ined.). 



XIV. RUBIACE^E, Juss. 



1. Coprosma fcetidissima, Forst. ; arborea, glaberrima, foliis petiolatis exacte elliptico-oblon- 

 gis obtusis apicibus vix mucronatis, floribus terminalibus solitariis, baccis subrotundis sessilibus.— 

 (Tab. XIII.) C. fcetidissima, Forst. Prodr. n. 138. DeC. Prodr. vol. iv. p. 578. A.Rich.Flor. Nov. 

 Zel. p. 261. A. Cunn. Prodr. Flor. Nov. Zel. 1. c. vol. ii. p. 206. 



Hab. Lord Auckland's group ; in the woods near the sea, also ascending in the valleys to 900 

 feet. 



This is a perfectly distinct plant, though confounded by Cunningham (as his specimens in Herb. Heward 

 prove) with the C. lucida, Forst. It is probably a very abundant species in the middle and southern islands of 

 New Zealand, where, however, it had until quite lately been gathered by Forster alone, in Queen Charlotte's 

 Sound. It has been more recently detected on the mountainous interior of the Northern Island by Mr. Colenso, 

 whose specimens (n. 117) are rather less robust, with the leaves narrower and more membranaceous. It is one 

 of the few large-leaved species with truly solitary and sessile flowers and berries. In this group of islands it 

 often attains a height of 20 feet, with a trunk 1| foot in diameter. The whole plant, especially when bruised 

 or when drying, exhales an exceedingly fetid odour, much resembling that of the flowers of Hibbertia volubilis. 

 I brought on board the " Erebus" specimens of this with other plants, late one evening, and finding that there 

 were more tender species, which took a considerable time to lay in paper, than I could well get through that night, 

 I locked this Coprosma in a small close cabin until I should have leisure to press it, but before half an hour had 

 elapsed the smell was intolerable, and had pervaded the whole of the lower deck. The leaves, though very 

 constant in form, vary much in size, and in the alpine specimens are scarcely more than ^-^ inch long. 



