218 Transactions. — Botany, 



Art. XXXI. — On the New Zealand Species of Coprosma. 



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

 [Read before the Auckland Institute, 18th October, 1886.] 



Next to Veronica, the genus Coprosma is the most puzzhng in 

 the New Zealand Flora. Not only are the species highly 

 variable in their mode of growth, foliage, and vegetative charac- 

 ters generally, but the flowers are so small and inconspicuous, 

 and so uniform in their structure, as to offer few distinctive 

 characters of importance. It is thus no easy matter to identify 

 the species even when they are examined in a fresh state, while 

 in the case of dried specimens, it requires the utmost care to 

 arrive at any satisfactory conclusions. 



For a considerable time I have made the New Zealand 

 Coprosmas a subject of special attention. Most of the species I 

 have seen living in their native stations, and have thus had 

 opportunities of tracing the variations due to differences in soil, 

 altitude, and exposure. I have been enabled to collect large 

 suites of specimens from all parts of the colony, and, in addi- 

 tion, have been favoured with others made for me by friends. 

 Through the kindness of Sir Joseph Hooker, sets of my speci- 

 mens have been compared with the types of the species described 

 by Cunningham and others, and now preserved in the Kew 

 Herbarium, so that my identifications have been rendered more 

 certain. The information and materials that I have collected I 

 now propose to make use of in drawing up a systematic account 

 of the sj^ecies, with the view of rendering their determination 

 more easy, and of supplying, as far as I can, the admitted de- 

 ficiencies existing in all previously published accounts. 



The genus Coprosma belongs to the liuhiacecB, or Madder 

 family, represented in the temperate regions of the northern 

 hemisphere by a sub-tribe (Stellatis) of low-growing herbaceous 

 plants, comprising, among otbers, the well-known Madder, 

 Woodruff, Cross-wort, etc. It is, however, in the tropics and 

 in the south temperate zone that the more typical members of 

 the family are found. Many of these are highly ornamental, 

 and are often seen in our gardens and greenhouses, as the 

 various species of Bouvardia, Ixora, Gardenia, etc. Two well- 

 known economic plants are also included — the Coffee shrub, and 

 the quinine-producing Cincliuna. The close alliance of these 

 plants to Coprosma has led to the suggestion that its bark 

 should be examined for quinine, or the allied alkaloids, and the 

 berry for caffeine. I believe that no exhaustive chemical exami- 

 nation has yet been made, but some preliminary investigations 

 that have been made by Mr. Bkey and others do not warrant 

 very favourable expectations. 



