370 Transactions. 



" Students' Flora," p. 276, as he considered it to be a distinct 

 species quite unlike any other. Olearia coriacea is a rather 

 tall shrub, having few rigid rather tortuous branches. Below 

 these branches are naked, but above they branch into short- 

 densely leafy twigs. Such leafy part is + 18 cm. long. The 

 leaves are small, extremely coriaceous, shortly petiolate, and 

 covered on their under surface with a very dense tomentum, 

 white with a faint brownish tinge. The upper surface is yel- 

 lowish-green, strongly marked by the reticulating veins, which 

 give rise on the under surface to distinct lacunae. The most 

 striking feature about the leaf is its curious curving, the mar- 

 gins being so recurved and the leaf so arching upwards as to 

 resemble a saddle, the apical portions being so recurved as to 

 almost meet, while this part of the leaf curves upwards, ending 

 in a point and thus forming the front of the saddle, the leaf- 

 base being broad and rounded, and the centre forming the 

 hollow. There were no signs of the young inflorescence, but 

 the remains of those of last year showed that it is a short panicle 

 about 3 - 5 cm. long. In shape, when flattened out, the leaves 

 are ovate or broadly ovate, and the blade measures from about 

 2 - l cm. by 13 cm. to about 1*4 cm. by 8 mm. Growing near 

 by was a plant of Olearia forsteri with small leaves, and one 

 plant of a form of 0. cymbifolia with large leaves, and this sug- 

 gested both to Mr. Matthews and myself that perhaps the plant 

 under discussion may be a hybrid between these two latter 

 species. 



Phormium cookianum, which comes next in abundance to 

 the dominant Cassinia, is a frequent important constituent of 

 subalpine scrubs. Its powers of resisting drought are very 

 great, since it often grows also on faces of rock in close vicinity 

 to the sea. 



The two Coprosmas and Aristotelia fruticosa are common 

 members of subalpine and river-terrace scrub, having the wind- 

 shorn habit of so many New Zealand shrubs. The branches 

 are interlacing, and the leaves small. The plants noted of the 

 Aristotelia were not of the extreme xerophytic type that the 

 species frequently assumes, showing in no case the reduction 

 of leaves and the semi-spinous shoots that I have recorded else- 

 where.* 



Dracophyllum uniflorum, like some others of its congeners, 

 has erect needle-like leaves, an obvious xerophytic adaptation. 

 Gaya ribi folia is the plant of the drier mountains. It is rather 

 more hairy than its close relation G. lyallii, and there are other 

 differences, one being the " dripping point " to the leaf, at 



* Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. xxxvi (see pi. xviii). 



