526 Transactions. — Botany. 



with ill the type. White or purple flowers are produced on 

 both forms, but I have not seen acute sepals on either. The 

 extension of this species to Te Kaweka is of great interest, 

 and quite unexpected. 



V. eUiptica, Forst., Prodr., n. 10. 



This species varies in the colour of the flowers, which in 

 the southern form are pure white, in the northern form white 

 with fine purple lines on the upper petals. The former is rare 

 on the northern side of Foveaux Strait, but is the only form 

 on the Snares and the Auckland and Campbell Islands. The 

 latter occurs on both coasts of the South Island, from west 

 Wanganui, Nelson, and eastern Otago to Stewart Island. It 

 is said to have been found on Banks Peninsula, but the state- 

 ment requires confirmation. 



Chatham Islands : Captain Gilbert Mair ! 



V. vernicosa, Hook, f., Handbk., 208. 



The leaves of this pretty little species are sometimes dis- 

 tichous, and the racemes very lax, although usually the 

 flowers are densely crowded. V. canterburiensis, J. B. Arm- 

 strong, in Trans. N.Z. Inst., xiii. (1880), is identical with this 

 on the authority of Mr. N. B. Brown, of Kew ; but it must be 

 remarked that until of late years V. vernicosa has not been 

 understood by New Zealand botanists, V. odora, Hook. f. 

 (Fl. Antarct., i., 62, t. 11), having been mistaken for it, an 

 error in which the authorities at Kew appear to have partici- 

 pated for a time. An Otago specimen of V. odora given me 

 by Mr. Buchanan in 1868 was labelled V. vernicosa. My 

 own specimens, n. 633, sent to Kew in 1877, were referred 

 to the same species, and in the colony the name was applied 

 to plants of V. odora cultivated in the fine collection in the 

 Public Domain, Christchurch. Tlie error was pointed out by 

 Mr. N. E. Brown in 1892. 



V. parviflora, Vahl, Symb. Bot., iii., 1; Bot. Mag., t. 5965. 



Racemes equalling or exceeding the leaves, obtuse or taper- 

 ing, pedicels shorter or longer than the flowers, puberulous. 

 Calyx deeply divided, lobes obtuse, puberulous or ciliated ; 

 corolla-tube broad, limb unequal, spreading, upper lobe soli- 

 tary and with the lateral lower lobes broadly rounded, middle 

 lobe linear. Capsule twice as long as the calyx, ovate, sub- 

 acute. 



A much-branched shrub, sometimes 18ft. in height, with a 

 trunk nearly 1ft. in diameter at the base. 



North and South Islands : From the Great Barrier Islands 

 southwards, but sometimes absent from large districts, as the 

 Auckland Isthmus, the Thames Goldfield, &c. 



