150 Transactions. — Botany. 



Akt. XX. — On the Vegetative Organs of Haastia pulvinaris."^' 



By Miss E. Low, B.A. 



Communicated by Professor A. Deudy, D.Sc. 



IBead before the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, 2nd Aug%ist,1899.'] 



Plates XVII.-XIX. 



1. Introduction. 



The reasons why this plant has been taken as a subject for 

 research are twofold. In the first place, it is of great interest, 

 being a remarkable instance of adaptation to alpine environ- 

 ment ; and, in the second place, it has never before been more 

 than barely described. The only literature to be found on 

 the subject is Hooker's description of it in his New Zealand 

 Flora, and he describes it as " forming dense hemispheres or 

 cushions, 3 ft. across, covered with fulvous wool, branches 

 with the leaves on as thick as the thumb. Leaves patent, 

 ■|in. long, crenulate, most densely imbricate, broadly ob- 

 cuneate, with dilated, rounded tips, margins recurved to- 

 wards the tip, membranous, 3-nerved when wool is removed. 

 Heads ^ in. broad. One of the most extraordinary plants in 

 the Islands." 



As the flowers of Haastia (order Composite) are of no 

 particular interest, and differ to no marked degree from those 

 of other gnaphalioid Compositoi, only the vegetative organs of 

 this plant have been made a subject of research. 



2. External Characters. 



All the plants of the genus Haastia are very peculiar 

 woolly herbs, and some have received, together with certain 

 species of Baoulia, the suggestive popular name of " vegetable 

 sheep"; but of all H. p)ulvinaris is at once the rarest and 

 the most remarkable, and is larger and of denser growth than 

 the other species. It is perennial, low-growing, rounded, 

 and as large as an ordinary sofa ; of the shape of a flattish 

 cushion, and of a light green-grey colour. The woolly, com- 



* This researoh was carried out in the biological laboratory of the 

 Canterbury College, and formed the subject of a thesis for the honours 

 degree of the New Zealand University. The thesis was first prepared in 

 1807, but the manuscript and drawings were lost in the wreck of the 

 " Mataura," so that the thesis had to be rewritten and fresh drawings 

 made in 1898. Since it was completed I learn that Dr. W. V. Lazniewski 

 has published a description of the leaves of Haastia pulvinaris in a memoir 

 which Miss Low had no onportunity of consulting (" Beitriige zur Biologie 

 der Alpenpflanzen " : Flora, IB'JG, 82 bd., heft, iii.).— A.D. 



