T. KiKK. — On Dactyiauthus taylori. 493 



New Zealand Institute. Apart from their special value to 

 the botanist, a considerable amount of historic interest must 

 be attached to them by all New-Zealanders. 



At the risk of seeming somewhat egotistical, I should like 

 to state that the Minister of Education has sanctioned the 

 small outlay necessary for obtaining a complete set of 

 proofs from the Banksian drawings of New Zealand plants 

 in the British Museum, and that copies reduced by photo- 

 lithography will be printed at the Government press, to form a 

 special volume of illustrations for the " Student's Flora of New 

 Zealand," now in preparation. The MS. volume of descrip- 

 tions now on the table will be bound for the library of the 

 New Zealand Institute. 



I am reluctant to allow this opportunity to pass without 

 expressing my thanks to Sir James Hector for his continuous 

 and loval efforts to insure the new Flora being made as com- 

 plete and exact as possible. When its publication was first 

 mooted some years back he advised the Government that, as 

 a simple matter ef business, it would be wise to send the 

 editor to London to examine the collections of New Zealand 

 plants made by the early botanists, and especially the vast 

 accumulations that have been sent to Kew during the last 

 thirty or forty years. The same course had previously been 

 suggested by Sir Joseph Hooker, but had not been brought 

 under the notice of the Government, When the Government 

 declined to adopt the advice Sir James warmly supported 

 the proposal to secure the MS. copy of Banks' and So- 

 lander's unpublished Flora, which is now before the meeting, 

 and thus rendered material assistance. He has done every- 

 thing in his power to facilitate the work and render it as 

 nearly perfect as possible. I gladly take this opportunity of 

 acknowledging his many good offices. 



Art. XLVII. — Notes on Dactylanthus taylori. Hook. f. 

 By T. Kirk, F.L.S. 



IRead before the Wellington Pliilosojphical Society, 25th September, 



1895.] 



The remarkable monotypic genus Dactylanthus constitutes 

 the fourth tribe of Balanoijliorem, an order of root-parasites 

 most of which have a very local distribution. Dactylanthus, 

 the " pua-reinga " of the Maoris, was originally discovered 

 about 1867 by the Eev. Eichard Taylor, growing on the roots 



