L. Cockayne. — Notes on New Zealand Floristic Botany. 165 



3'5 mm. diameter throughout for their final 15 cm. of length, grooved but 

 not nearly to the same extent as in dried material, and more or less arcuate. 

 The branchlets vary from about 4 cm. to 15 cm. in length ; they are inserted 

 on the flanks of the branch at an angle of about 30° and at about 2'5 cm. 

 distance from one another. They are straight, bright yellowish-green, 

 striate, flat, 3 cm. wide more or less, and almost uniform in width through- 

 out. The leaves are numerous where sheltered, and then in fascicles of 

 2-4 at the base of young stems ; elsewhere they are inserted in the notch of 

 the stem at an angle similar to that of the insertion of the branchlet ; the 

 largest are about U8 cm. long, 3-foliate, their petiole 7 mm. long and chan- 

 nelled above ; the leaflets are uniform in size, rather dull green, obcordate- 

 cuneate, their midrib sunken above but slightly keeled beneath ; other 

 leaves have similar characters, but they gradually decrease in size towards 

 the tips of the branchlets until they become only 5 mm. long, or even less, 

 and may consist of one leaflet only. In the cultivated plant the leaves 

 are glabrous, but wild specimens show a few hairs on the under-surface, 

 especially on the midrib. By all previous authors C. grandiflora is described 

 as having glabrous leaves, but in all my herbarium specimens collected in 

 various localities, including the classical habitat, Milford Sound, the under- 

 surface of the leaf is more or less hairy, and sometimes considerably so. 

 The flowers are white, except for a distinct pale-purple blotch through the 

 median line of the standard, and honey-scented but rather cloying ; they 

 are in lax-flowered racemes, about 16 mm. long, furnished with short 

 peduncles 4 mm. long or less. The calyx is campanulate and 3 mm. long ; 

 its tube is green or mottled pale purple, and the teeth are acute, small, 

 pale purplish-brown, and ciliolate with white hairs. The standard slightly 

 exceeds the keel, being 6 mm. long by 6 mm. broad ; the wings and keel 

 are equal in length (5-5 mm.). 



The above description corresponds, as far as changes through drying 

 allow a comparison to be made, with that supplied by dried specimens. 

 The var. alba may therefore be defined as follows : A wide-spreading shrub 

 with the branchlets situated on the flanks of the stems, the racemes numerous, 

 4-6-flowered, the flowers white with a pale-purple blotch down the centre 

 of the standard and sweet-scented, the standard as broad as long and rather 

 longer than the keel, which equals the wings. 



Up till now C. grandiflora var. alba has been recorded from its one original 

 station only. But that it has so restricted a distribution seems highly 

 unlikely. It is more than likely that through taxonomists working mainly 

 with dried material the colour of the flowers has been frequently overlooked, 

 and that specimens are now included in herbaria along with the " type," 

 or other possible varieties, which may agree in colour with var. alba. How 

 greatly colour has been neglected in diagnoses of species of Carmichaelia 

 is demonstrated by the facts that Kirk mentions colour specifically in only 

 four out of twenty-three species (Huttonella included) and that Cheeseman 

 refers to colour in only seven out of nineteen species. 



27. Carmichaelia juncea Col. ex Hook. f. (var. from Upper Clarence 

 Valley). 



Carmichaelia juncea Col. was described in the first place by J. D. Hooker 

 in the Flora Novae- Zelandiae, vol. 1, p. 51, from specimens collected by 

 Colenso from " east coast, Hawke's Bay and Taupo." In the Handbook 

 Hooker referred plants from the East Cape (coll. Sinclair), from Akaroa 

 (coll. Raoul), and from the Canterbury Plains (coll. Travers) to this species. 



