<60 Transactions. 



after gathering. But N. torulosum is purple, and it could never have 

 received the popular name " pink broom " which N. Carmichaeliae bears. 



21. Rubus Barkeri Cockayne. 



It may be remembered that the remarkable feature of the above plant 

 was that it had never flowered, although it had been cultivated in gardens, 

 under different conditions, for nearly twelve years. I had therefore suggested 

 that it might be a " non-flowering species." At the same time, I was careful 

 to make no definite statement on this head, but wrote, " Whether the non- 

 flowering depends upon the environments hitherto provided being unsuit- 

 able, as is the case with certain non-flowering plants in Europe and elsewhere, 

 or whether the species is actually unable to bloom, the future alone will 

 determine"' (Trans. N.Z Inst., vol. 42, p. 325, 1910). After about nineteen 

 years since the plant first came into cultivation, a specimen, which was 

 raised from the ground and tied to a support, grown in the garden of my 

 friend Mr. D. L. Poppelwell, of Gore (Southland), has produced a small 

 panicle of five flowers, all of which, but for the presence of a stamen on 

 one of them, are female, the species being apparently dioecious. 



The following is a brief description of the flower, so far as may be 

 ascertained from the scanty dried material : Calyx- segments broadly oblong, 

 obtuse or subacute, about 2-5 mm. long, densely pilose beneath and on 

 margin ; corolla white, ovate, obtuse, about twice as long as the calyx- 

 segments ; carpels numerous. I have no female flowers of the closely 

 related Rubus parvus Buchanan for comparison, but fruiting specimens 

 show much longer, narrower, acuminate calyx-segments, which are similar 

 to those of the male flower of the last-named species. (Cf. also the calyx- 

 segments of the male and partly developed fruiting flower in Cheeseman's 

 Illustrations of the New Zealand Flora, pi. 37, 1914.) 



The eventual flowering of Rubus Barkeri after such a long period of 

 vegetative growth only may arouse a suspicion that the original cuttings 

 were taken from a juvenile and not from an adult plant. Such a suspicion 

 may, I think, be dismissed, since the original cuttings taken by the late 

 Mr. S. D. Barker were not only numerous, but, as shown by the photo- 

 graph on Plate VII, too thick in the stem and too large generally to have 

 been gathered from an immature plant. Also, since R. Barkeri resembles 

 R. parvus so greatly in manner of growth, even had the original planl 

 been a seedling it would almost certainly have flowered in a year or two. 

 All who are acquainted with R. Barkeri in cultivation are fully aware of 

 its extreme vigour and capability of most rapid vegetative increase. So. 

 too, with R. parvus, both wild and in cultivation. 



22. Senecio Christensenii Cockayne sp. nov. 



Frutex parvus, pauciramosus, ± 10 cm. altus. Folia plerumque radi- 

 calia, pauca caulina, anguste oblonga, apice obtusa, integra, petiolata petiolis 

 gracilibus, teretibus, tomentosis, usque ad 2 cm. longis ; lamina + 2-9 cm 

 longa, 14 cm. lata, coriacea, supra primo subtomentosa deinde paena 

 glabra dilute flavo-viridis conspicue reticulato-nervosa nervis imprests, 

 subtus pilis tenuibus sordide albidis dense tomentosa medio nervo pro- 

 minente. Scapus gracilis, rigidus, sparse tomentosus, basim versus inter- 

 dum brachiatus, pilis numerosis brevibus glandulosis munitus ; bractae 

 numerosae, appressae, lineari-oblongae sed scapi apicem versus lineares, 

 supra virides, infra capitula circ. ? 2 cm. diam. ; involucri-bractae lineares, 



