242 Transactions. — Botany. 



and Canterbury, has a much more slender habit, softer more 

 pubescent branches, and rather broader much thmner leaves, 

 which are usually ciliate on both surfaces and margins with 

 soft hairs. This might be distinguished as var. 2)i(osa. The 

 third form is stiff and rigid, and very closely branched, with 

 white bark and very small almost linear leaves. It also is 

 montane, and occurs in several places in the Southern Alps, 

 fi'om Nelson to Otago. 



18. C. crassifolia. 



Colenso, Tasmanian Journal of Natural Science. 



North Island. — Whangarei, T.F.C.; Head of Manukau 

 Harbour, W. Colenso, T. Kirk ! , T.F.C. Sand-hills between 

 Helensville and the West Coast, T.F.C. 



South Island. — Nelson, Maitai Valley, and other places, 

 T.F.C. Otago, not uncommon throughout the Province, D. 

 Petrie ! 



A compact rigid bush, 6-12 feet high. Branches divari- 

 cating, excessively stiff and rigid, often interlacing. Bark 

 reddish-brown or greyish-brown, rough, uneven, and fissured 

 on the branches, smoother on the twigs. Ultimate brauchlets 

 glabrous or very finely puberulous. Leaves in pairs on opposite 

 twigs, broadly oblong, ovate, or orbicular, rounded at the tip or 

 refuse, suddenly narrowed into a very short puberulous petiole, 

 fiat, usually very thick and coriaceous, quite glabrous, often 

 whitish below, i-l inch long, i- finch broad; veins usually 

 concealed ; margins thickened. Flowers terminating short lateral 

 often leafless brauchlets (and thus appearing axillary), solitary or 

 more rarely 2-3 together. Males : True calyx wanting, but one 

 or more involucels present, composed of depauperated leaves 

 and their stipules. Corolla ^-J inch long, campanulate, 

 4-lobed to nearly the base, Stamens, 4. Females tubular, J- - ^ 

 inch long. Calyx adnate to the ovary, limb minute, truncate or 

 obsoletely toothed. Drupe sub-globose or broadly oblong, i - | 

 inch diameter, dull yellow. 



<J. crassifvli'j , which is a distinct species, though closely allied 

 to the following, was originally discovered by ]\Ir. Colenso nearly 

 40 years ago, near the head of the Manukau Harbour. In 

 the " Flora," and also in the "Handbook," Sir J. D. Hooker 

 referred it, together with the three next species, to 6'. dirarieata, 

 A. Cunn. But Mr. N. E. Brown, who has lately carefully 

 examined the whole of the Coprosmas in Cunningham's herb- 

 arium, has satisfied himself that the original type of C. dirari- 

 eata is only a varitity of C. r/iainnuide.s, and that the four plants 

 placed under it by Hooker are quite disthict, both from it and 

 from one another. I understand that Sir Joseph Hooker now 



