330 Transactions. — Botany. 



I take this opportunity of acknowledging ray indebtedness 

 to Mr. Rutland, whose name is attached to this handsome 

 plant, for his ready and continuous assistance in elaborating 

 the botany of portions of the Nelson and Marlborough Districts. 



Art. XL. — A 'Revision of the Neiv Zealand Gentians. 



By T. Kirk, F.L.S. 



[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 28th November, 



1894.-] 



Plates XXVII.-XXVIIc. 



The first gentians observed in New Zealand were discovered 

 during Cook's second voyage (1772-73), and were described by 

 Forster as G. montana and G. saxosa. In 1839 Grisebach 

 described a third species in his " Genera et Species Gen- 

 tianere," under the name of G. pleurogynoides , which was 

 reduced to a variety of G. saxosa by Sir Joseph Hooker in his 

 original " Flora of New Zealand," but allowed specific rank in 

 the " Handbook of the New Zealand Flora." In 1844 Hooker 

 described two other species, G. grisebachii and G. bellidi- 

 folia, in " Icones Plantarum." The former was reduced by 

 him to a variety of G. montana, while the latter was referred 

 to G. saxosa. In the "Flora Antarctica " (1845) the learned 

 author figured two additional species, G. concinna and G. 

 cerina, while a form of the latter was described by Hombron 

 in the Botany of the " Voyage au Pole Sud " (1848), under the 

 name of G. camjjbellii, although really found on the Auckland 

 Islands. In 1871 Mr. J. F. Armstrong published a form of 

 G. montana under the name of G. nova-zelandire ; and in 1880 

 Mr. J. B. Armstrong described the typical form of G. saxosa, 

 a purely littoral species, as G. hoolceri, a name appropriated by 

 Grisebach for a South American plant in 1839. In the fol- 

 lowing account five new species are described, and G. bel- 

 lidifolia is restored to specific rank. 



In the " Flora Australiensis " Bentham united G. pleuro- 

 gynoides and G. saxosa under G. montana, treating G. saxosa 

 as a variety. The learned Baron Von Mueller unites the three 

 forms under G. saxosa in his " Second Systematic Census of 

 Australian Plants," and is supported by Sir Joseph Hooker 

 in the recently-published " Index Kewensis." Notwithstand- 

 ing all my respect for these illustrious authors, the propriety 

 of this course seems to me at least doubtful. While fully 



