12 Transactions. 



12. Veronica Benthami Hook, f., form with white flowers. 



V. Benthami is a shrub of straggling habit endemic in the Auckland 

 Islands. The flowers are normally of a brilliant blue, a most unusual colour 

 amongst New Zealand plants. One or two individuals with white flowers 

 were noted by me in 1907. Also, another plant had the flowers almost 

 carmine when just opening, but fading to a paler colour on the outer parts 

 of the corolla when fully expanded (Cockayne, 1909, p. 203). 



13. Occurrence of variegation, &c. 



There are three forms of variegated Coprosma Baueri Endl. in cultivation 

 of whose origin I know nothing. A variegated form of Griselinia littoralis 

 Raoul was discovered a number of years ago by the late Mr. Purdie in the 

 vicinity of Dunedin. The late Mr. H. J. Matthews found, also in the 

 neighbourhood of Dunedin, a form of Fuchsia excorticata L. f. with very 

 dark-coloured leaves, quite different from the normal. One individual of 

 Cordyline australis Hook. f. with variegated leaves was found many years ago 

 in a batch of seedlings raised at Duncan's nursery, Christchurch. It appears 

 to come true from seed. Variegated forms of Veronica salicifolia Forst. 

 have appeared on several occasions in cultivation. There are variegated 

 forms of Pittosporum tenuifolium Banks & Sol. and P. eugenioides A. Cunn.. 

 but their origin is unknown. A form of Coprosma robusta Raoul with 

 yellow and not the typical red-orange drupes was found by me near Kaipara 

 Harbour, Auckland. There are a number of variegated forms of Phormium 

 tenax Forst. and P. Cookianum Le Jobs in cultivation, which come more 

 or less true from seed, but a variegated plant of the latter species found 

 wild by me on Mount Sherwood. Marlborough, upon being brought into 

 cultivation reverted to the type. 



14. Tetragonia expansa Murr. 



This case is cited by De Vries (1901, p. 169). There are two forms, one 

 with brownish and the other with green flowers ; both came true. The 

 wild plant in New Zealand has yellow flowers. 



15. Pittosporum tenuifolium Banks & Sol., form with yellow flowers. 



In New Zealand, so far as is known, the petals are invariably dark- 

 purple, almost black. But, according to H. M. Hall (1910, pp. 7, 8), two 

 shrubs growing in a row of the normal-coloured plant in California pro- 

 duced yellow flowers. Should this be at all common in New Zealand it 

 could hardly have escaped notice. 



16. Introduced plants. 



Some remarkable more or less hereditary variations have come about 

 in the broom (Cytisus scoparius Link.), gorse (Ulex europaeus L.), and tree- 

 lupin (Lupinus arboreus Sims). In the first two named species there are 

 colour-changes from the normal yellow to white, differences in size and 

 shape of flower, and, in the gorse, variation in time of blooming. 



Lupinus arboreus Sims, normally yellow, and varying but little in its 

 native land, on the dunes near New Brighton, Canterbury, has undergone 

 many remarkable changes in the colour of its flowers. There is, e.g., a 

 pure-white, yellows of various tints, and a great variety of purples com- 

 bined, or not, with whites and yellows. These abnormally coloured plants 

 occur in patches here and there as a general rule, and appear to get more 

 abundant year by year. In the North Island I have neither noticed nor 

 heard of such variations, nor yet in Central Otago. 



