384 Transactions. 



Carex trifida, and it hac been suggested that here it is probably 

 a protection against loss of water by evaporation from the ves- 

 sels.* In Ligusticum it is further reinforced by the development 

 of collenchyma, usually in connection with the epidermis. Pierce 

 (1903, p. 124) considers that this collcnchymatous tissue is pri- 

 marily formed as strengthening-tissue in young growing organs, 

 and is afterwards made use of as water-storage tissue, by holding 

 the drops of water in the interstices of the cell-walls. 



(8.) Colourless parenchyma tissue, which probably acts to 

 store water, is present in Ranunculus pinguis, and occupies the 

 greater part of the tissue of the succulent plants, as Colobanthus 

 and Phyllachne. It is also specially developed in Astelia. Cal- 

 cium oxalate is developed in certain of the plants. In Colo- 

 banthus it takes the form of clusters of crystals, while in Epi- 

 lobium and Coprosma repens, belonging to the Dicotyledons, 

 they are needle-shaped crystals formed in groups as raphides ; 

 raphides are also present in Astelia. Raphides are usually 

 associated with mucilage secretion. f 



Ranunculus pinguis, Hook. f. 



" Radical leaves on short stout petioles, fleshy, rounded, 

 reniform, deeply crenate, lobulate, 1 in. to 3 in. in diameter, 

 veins reticulated in young plants, oblong and cuneate ; cauline 

 more or less cut. "J 



Hab. — " Boggy places on hills, 1,000 ft. above sea to moun- 

 tain-tops on Campbell Island, and rare in rocky places on Lord 

 Auckland's Island. "§ 



Dr. Cockayne (1903) mentions it only once in his account of 

 the Campbell Island flora. He says (p. 283) that it is more or 

 less plentiful in the rich peaty soil of the wind-sheltered hollows 

 of the subalpine rock region. Such a station as this, he adds, 

 " is very favourable for plants, since the very conditions are 

 here present which experience had found essential for the culti- 

 vation of difficult alpine plants — viz., shelter, a porous soil, 

 abundance of pure water, perfect drainage." 



E. subscaposus, another plant of the Southern Islands, occurs 

 in this same subalpine rock region, but under less favourable 

 conditions. Both it and another species, E. aucllandicus, are 

 flourishing well on the rockery at the present time, while E. 

 pinguis has now entirely disappeared. The leaf I examined was 

 very young, only about I in. in diameter, and did not show the 



* Kearney (1900), p. 282. 

 t Strasburger (1898), p. 72. 

 % Hooker (1867), p. 4. 

 § Hooker (1847), vol. i. p. ?,. 



