TRANSACTIONS 



OP THK 



NEW ZEALAND INSTITUTE 



1913. 



Art. I. — Contributions to a Fuller Knowledge of the Flora of New Zealand : 



No. 5. 



By T. F. Cheeseman, F.L.S., F.Z.S., Curator of the Auckland Museum. 

 [Read before the Auckland Institute, 3rd December, 1913.] 



I. Ranunculaceae. 

 Clematis indivisa Willd. 



In the Students' Flora Mr. T. Kirk constituted three varieties of this 

 plant, describing them as follows: " Var. b, lobulata, leaflets toothed or 

 lobulate, flowers smaller ; var. c, decomposita, leaflets 2-ternate ; var. d, 

 linearis, leaflets narrow-linear, 3-7 in. long, J— | in. broad, entire or with 

 two lateral lobes at the base." For many years I have been convinced 

 that these three forms are nothing more than juvenile states of C. indivisa, 

 and I am now able to offer satisfactory proof of this. In August, 1912, 

 Mr. H. B. Morton gave me a number of young seedlings of C. indivisa, 

 varying in height from 4 in. to 8 in. They all had narrow-linear leaves 

 3 in. to 4 in. long, closely resembling the leaves of very young plants of 

 Parsonsia heterophylla. They were planted in richly manured soil at the 

 foot of a tall trellis, and made very rapid growth. The simple linear leaves 

 soon gave place to trifoliolate leaves with linear leaflets, which in their turn 

 were followed by others in which the leaflets were broader and much cut and 

 lobed, in a few instances being twice ternate. By August, 1913, or within 

 twelve months, some of the stems had reached the height of 12 ft., and 

 produced flowers abundantly. In the meantime the upper leaves had 

 assumed the ordinary shape of the adult — that is, with ovate-oblong entire 

 or slightly toothed leaflets. At the present time (November, 1913) almost 

 all traces of the early leaves have been lost. At the same time, as several 

 observers, including myself, have seen flowering specimens with lobulate 

 leaflets, it may be taken for granted that the juvenile foliage sometimes 

 persists for a few years. 



1— Trans. 



