Papers. 25 



it in many localities in both Islands, and examined hundreds of specimens, 

 but I have never seen even two flower-heads to a stem, and I understand 

 that the experience of other observers is the same. On the other hand, 

 Mr. Buchanan's two flowering specimens of H. fasciculatum each have three 

 flower-heads. If this character should prove constant, it is quite sufficient 

 to uphold the specific distinction of his plant, but until additional speci- 

 mens with the same peculiarity have been obtained it is permissible to take 

 the view that we are dealing with a pair of abnormal specimens. In sup- 

 port of this view I may mention that the individual heads are precisely 

 similar to those of R. grandiflora, the shape and size of the corolla, the 

 pappus-hairs, and the achenes being identical in both. The leaves of 

 H. fasciculatum are slightly larger and broader than in R. grandiflora, and 

 the covering of felted tomentum somewhat denser, but these differences 

 are not more than might be expected in an unusually luxuriant form. On 

 the whole, I am inclined to regard it as an aberrant form of R. grandiflora 

 rather than a distinct, species. 



Both Sir J. D. Hooker and myself have expressed the opinion that the 

 remarkable differences between the pappus-hairs of the two sections of the 

 genus Raoulia would ultimately, when the gnaphalioid Compositae were 

 fully worked out, prove sufficient to separate them as distinct genera. In 

 a series of papers contributed to the Botanical Society of Geneva, under 

 the title of " Contributions a l'Etude des Composees," Dr. Gustave Beau- 

 verd, the well-known keeper of the Boissier Herbarium, has endeavoured 

 to clear up some of the difficulties which at present encumber the classi- 

 fication of the Gnaphalieae. In a special number of the series he dis- 

 cusses the relationships of Raoulia with its allies, and establishes three 

 new genera — Psychrophyton, consisting of Hooker's section Imbricaria of 

 Raoulia ; Leucogenes, containing Helichrysum Leontopodium and H. grandi- 

 ceps ; and Ewartia, comprising three species from Victoria and Tasmania, 

 of which R. catipes is the type. Dr. Beauverd's paper, which is printed in 

 the Bulletin of the society for 1910 (pp. 207 to 241), is one of the most im- 

 portant publications dealing with the New Zealand Compositae that has 

 appeared for many years, and I hope to prepare a resume of it for publica- 

 tion in the Transactions. 



3. Note on the Species of Hydra found in New Zealand. 



By Gilbert Archey. 



Communicated by Dr. Chas. Chilton. 



[Bead before the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, 12th July, 1911.] 



Very little appears to have been published on the species of Hydra found in 

 New Zealand. The first definite record was made in 1867 by Dr. Coughtrey,* 

 who found a specimen in a stream near Dunedin. In his note he says, " This 

 Hydra, in general form, is like //. viridis, in colour pale brown, and has 

 seven tentacula, which are peculiar in this respect, that they are distinctly 

 annulated and each ring is fringed." No name was given to this species 

 by Coughtrey. In an earlier paper he says in a footnote, " I have seen 

 two Hydrae in New Zealand, one nearly like H. viridis of Britain, and the 



* Coughtrey : " Critical Notes on New Zealand Hydroida." Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., 

 ser. 4, vol. 17, p. 22; 1867. 



