Kirk. — On Neio Zealand Fuchsias. 265 



In F. excorticata the three forms grow intermixed, usually 

 in about the same proportion ; although the flowers of each 

 tree are uniform, there is a considerable amount of variation 

 in the flowers on different trees, so that it would not be diffi- 

 cult to find intermediate forms, as in Lythrum grcefferi and 

 L. salicaria. 



The long-styled form of F. excorticata is practically a 

 female flower, as the anthers are almost invariably abortive, 

 and it is especially worthy of note that it produces a larger 

 quantity of fruit than either the mid- or short-styled forms. 

 As the three forms are usually found together wherever the 

 plant is plentiful, it may fairly be assumed that this profusion 

 of fruit is largely due to the application of pollen from both 

 the mid- and short-styled forms ; but this point can only be 

 determined by an exhaustive series of experiments. - The 

 assumption receives a certain amount of support from the fact 

 that, in a few observed cases where the mid-styled form ap- 

 peared to be absent, the quantity of fruit produced by the 

 long-styled form was greatly reduced. The same result has 

 been observed in the absence of the short-styled form, and it 

 may well be that the paucity or entire absence of fruit on 

 many trees, even after flowers have been produced in profusion, 

 is at least partially due to the absence of one form or the 

 other. 



So far as known to me, F. colensoi produces fruit but 

 sparingly, especially in the North Island. May not this be 

 partially due to the absence or comparative rarity of the short- 

 styled form ? 



No instance is known, so far as I am aware, of the dif- 

 ferent forms of F. procumbens growing intermixed. I have never 

 seen or heard of more than a single form occurring in any one 

 locality. This may well account for the fact that the hand- 

 some fruit of this species has not been seen in the wild state. 

 At Tryphena Bay Professor Hutton and myself examined 

 hundreds of flowers, but saw no trace of fruit ; subsequently I 

 had the same experience at Mine Bay, and again at Whanga- 

 ruru. Its original discoverer saw no trace of fruit at Matauri, 

 where he collected the plant during the autumn months, 

 when fruit should have been plentiful. 



Although the mid- and short-styled forms are often culti- 

 vated, I have never seen both forms in the same garden. At 

 present the long-styled form has not found its way into culti- 

 vation in the colony, although it appears to have been culti- 

 vated in England for fifty years, and the short-styled form for 

 twenty years. Cultivated plants of the mid- and short-styled 

 forms grown separately, although most frequently sterile, 

 produce fruits occasionally ; sometimes only a single berry 

 becomes mature, rarely more than two or three. On one 



