56 Transactions. 



Art. V. — Notes on New Zealand Floristic Botany, including Descriptions 



of New Species, &c. (No. 2). 



By L. Cockayne, Ph.D., F.L.S., F.R.S., Hutton and Hector Memorial 



Medallist. 



[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 23rd August, 1916; received by 

 Editors, 30th December, 1916 ; issued separately, 9th July, 1917.] 



Plate VII. 



I. Taxonomic. 

 15.* Acaena Sanguisorbae Vahl. var. minor Hook. f. 



The above variety was constituted in 1844 by J. D. Hooker in the Flora 

 Antarctica to accommodate a certain form of Acaena collected by him on 

 Lord Auckland and Campbell Islands, and differing from what Hooker 

 considered the typical Acaena Sanguisorbae in its smaller size and greater 

 degree of hairiness. Later, in the Flora Novae- Zelandiae (1853), he referred 

 the pilose mountain form of the South Island to this variety. Strange to 

 say, this var. minor of Hooker f. has been overlooked or disregarded by 

 all who have dealt with Acaena Sanguisorbae since the publication of the 

 Flora Novae-Zelandiae, including Hooker himself in the Handbook of the 

 New Zealand Flora. 



In the Students' Flora of New Zealand, 1899, p. 133, T. Kirk described 

 under the varietal name pilosa what are almost certainly the same plants 

 as those constituting the var. minor of the Flora Novae-Zelandiae — i.e., 

 the suban tare tic form together with the South Island mountain form. 



In 1904 I showed that the mainland plant differed in essential par- 

 ticulars from the subantarctic plant, for which I proposed the varietal name 

 antarctica (Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. 36, p. 319, 1904), thus restricting Kirk's 

 varietal name to the plant, or, as I now know, series of plants, of the 

 mainland. This action of mine was approved by Cheeseman in the Sub- 

 antarctic Islands of New Zealand, vol. 2, p. 403, 1909. Later, in 1911. 

 G. Bitter (Die Gattung Acaena, Heft 4, p. 274) constituted his subspecies 

 ■aucklandica to receive the subantarctic plant. But, undoubtedly, the latter 

 is synonymous with my var. antarctica, an opinion in which Bitter in a 

 letter to me concurred upon receiving some of my original material. 



From the above it seems obvious, since Hooker's var. minor was the 

 original name of the subantarctic plant, the names antarctica and auck- 

 landica must be abandoned, and that the Acaena in question must be known 

 henceforth as A. Sanguisorbae Vahl. var. minor Hook. f. 



16. Carmichaelia Williamsii T. Kirk. 



I have recently had an opportunity of examining fresh flowers of this 

 shrub ; gathered from a cultivated specimen in the garden of my friend 

 Professor H. B. Kirk. The colour of these flowers differed greatly from what 

 had been stated in all previous descriptions, as may be seen from what 

 follows, so that either the species is polymorphic so far as colour is con- 

 cerned, or the descriptions hitherto have been inaccurate. 



The species was originally described by T. Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst., 

 vol. 12, pp. 394-95, 1880, where it is stated, " The flowers appear to be of 



* The numbers are continued consecutively from the first paper of this series, in 

 Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. 48, pp. 193-202, 1916. 



