164 Transactions. 



compressed branchlets, shorter fewer-flowered, racemes, glabrous pedicels, 

 and smaller dehiscent pod, with much stouter beak, which contains not 

 1-3 but 2-5 seeds. From Carmichaelia prona, the only purely prostrate 

 species yet described, it is distinguished at once by its leafless adult 

 branches, dehiscing pod with longer beak and greater number of seeds. 



Except for the dehiscence of the pod, the species under consideration 

 would come into the subgenus Huttonella. 



The plant was discovered by Mr. W. H. Field, M.P., to whom it is 

 dedicated. Mr. Aston was with Mr. Field at the time of the discovery, 

 and he kindly handed over to me for publication the material he had col- 

 lected, gave me two living plants for cultivation and further observation, 

 and supplied the information given above regarding the habitat and habit 

 of the species. 



26. Carmichaelia grandiflora (Benth.) Hook. f. var. alba T. Kirk. 



The var. alba of Carmichaelia grandiflora was established in 1899 by 

 T. Kirk to accommodate a plant which grows abundantly near the out- 

 skirts of subalpine Nothofagus forest in the neighbourhood of the junction 

 of the White River and the main branch of the River Waimakariri, not far 

 from their sources (Western Botanical District). There it has been collected 

 by Kirk himself, Cheeseman, Wall, myself, and others. Cheeseman (Manual, 

 p. 115) recognizes only the " type ' : —obviously a mixture — and var. divari- 

 cata T. Kirk, but (Illustrations of the New Zealand Flora, facing pi. 33) 

 he writes regarding C. grandiflora. " It is an exceedingly variable plant. 

 Mr. T. Kirk in his ' Students' Flora,' enumerates three varieties, and there 

 are other distinct-looking forms. These varieties* differ in size, in the mode 

 of branching, and in the size and shape of the pod. But before their 

 systematic position can be properly understood they all require careful study 

 and examination in the field." From this it is evident that, according to 

 Cheeseman, the " varieties " of C. grandiflora differ from one another in 

 virtually all the essential characters used to define the species of Carmichaelia. 



Coming to var. alba, this is probably now accepted by Cheeseman as o 

 variety, since in the Illustrations, when criticizing Kirk's remarks about its 

 odour, Cheeseman writes, " Mr. T. Kirk in the ' Students' Handbook ' says 

 that the flowers 'smell disgustingly of mice.' But this peculiarity, so far 

 as my own observations go, is only noticeable when the plant is being dried. 

 In the fresh state the odour of the flowers is decidedly pleasant." 



Since there is blossoming just now in my garden (30th December, 1917) 

 a plant of the variety under consideration, collected for me last year by 

 Professor A. Wall, M.A., from the original locality of the plant, I am in 

 a position to add a few details about the variety from living material, 

 which, unless being slightly less luxuriant and blooming more scantily, is 

 essentially the same as if gathered from a wild plant. 



Kirk describes his var. alba as follows : " Branchlets more robust, 

 compressed, deeply grooved, fastigiate or nearly so. Flowers as in the 

 typical form, but white. Ripe pods not seen. Smells disgustingly of 

 mice " ; and he adds that it is " possibly a distinct species." 



The plant in my garden is certainly not " fastigiate " ; on the contrary, 

 the branches are wide-spreading, being 60 cm. in their spread, while the 

 shrub is but 30 cm. high. The branches are dark green, flattened, about 



* It is not clear whether the author means only Kirk's published varieties or these 

 together with the " other distinct -looking forms," but I think the latter are meant to 

 be included. 



