Colenso. — On Phaenogarns. 335 



-o 



blue ; about 16 seeds in each ; seeds black, shining, usually 

 3-sided, flat on two sides and rounded on the third, but when 

 fewer in number gibbous. 



Hab. " On the spurs and in the gullies of the Euahine, Ka- 

 weka, and Kaimanawa Mountain-ranges, County of Hawke's 

 Bay; alt. 2,000ft.-4,000ft. Sometimes growing in the woods, 

 and sometimes in the open lands, but more generally along 

 the edges of woods, and among scattered shrubs." — Mr. Thomas 

 Hallett, in lit., August, 1892. 



Obs. I. Mr. Hallett also says in his interesting letter, 

 " These trees vary in height from 6ft. to 30ft., but are generally 

 about 12ft. high in open lands, and 20ft. in woods. The 

 flowering - stem hangs down beside the trunk of the tree. 

 The leaves sent were cut from a tree growing at 2,100ft. alt. 

 above sea-level, and at about 7ft. above ground ; there were 

 60 of them besides the small unfolded central ones ; the 

 diameter of the trunk was 6in. Each leaf in falling off leaves 

 a ring on the stem, which becomes very indistinct after a few 

 years ; and, as several leaves grow every year, there are many 

 rings formed, so that the age of the plant cannot be determined 

 by them." 



II. I have long known this plant — from my first seeing it 

 in its native habitat in the '30s, and often afterwards in the 

 '40s, when travelling in the mountainous interior of this 

 North Island, and also in following years occasionally culti- 

 vated in gardens" — but had never seen its flowers ; and from 

 the description of Forster's plant, C. indivisa, obtained by 

 him in the South Island (as given by Hooker), I always had a 

 doubt of it being the same species as this one, which doubt 

 was also further increased through my certain knowledge that 

 Forster had never been in this North Island. And when I 

 read " the valuable communication regarding the Cordjjlines " 

 made by Sir James Hector to Sir Joseph Hooker, f I felt 

 pretty well confirmed in my opinion. Sir James Hector 

 wrote, — 



"5. C. indivisa. This is the broad-leaved deep-green ti, J 

 with red veins, a single head, and long elegant flowers, that 

 Forster found in Dusky Bay. The leaf has a slight resem- 

 blance to the true toii of Colenso, which has led to the con- 

 fusion, no doubt. 



* I had for several years fine plants of it growing well in my garden 

 at Waitangi (Hawke's Bay), with other mountain plants, as Bcmunculus 

 insignis, Aciphylla colensoi, Calceolaria rcpens, Cordyline banksii, Antlie- 

 ricum liookcri, &c. All these flourished and flowered there until a very 

 severe and long- continued flood, which overflowed my garden and deposited 

 a large amount of silt, which destroyed them all. 



f " Handhook of the New Zealand Flora," p. 743. 



\ Ti is the Maori name for the Cordylines ; it may he called their 

 generic one. 



