Specimen of the Botany of New Zealand, 247 



subcequalia, vexillum lamina latiore quam longiore basi absque callis auri- 

 culisve, carina obtusa. Filamenta 1 — 9 fida. Ovarium lineare, 5 — 6-sper- 

 miim. Stylus subalatus. Stigma obtusum, imberbe. Semina reniformia, 

 sinu clauso, umbilico nudo. R. Br. 



This very remarkable plant seems to have been but imperfectly- 

 understood until Mr. Brown ably denned the true structure of its 

 pod. Forster, with an expression of doubt, referred it to Lotus, in 

 which genus it was retained by Willdenow, notwithstanding that he 

 appears to have been acquainted with its fruit ; and by DeCandolle 

 in the 2nd vol. of his ' Prodromus,' which appeared in 1825, who 

 could not have been aware of its having been erected into a new 

 genus by Mr. Brown ; and from the MSS. of that eminent botanist, 

 published in the ' Bot. Reg.' in September of that year. But the 

 blunders of M. Ach. Richard, respecting this very curious plant w T hich 

 had been living in the English gardens antecedent to the publication 

 of his ' Essai d'une Flore de la Nouv. Zelande ' in 1832, (and one 

 might have supposed it would at that time have got into the Paris 

 gardens from us) appear wholly inexplicable. Apparently altogether 

 ignorant of Mr. Brown's name, and evidently without an idea of what 

 Forster meant by Lotus ? arboreus, he not only inserts this latter in 

 his work from Forster's MSS. at some length, but on finding speci- 

 mens in fruit of the Carmichaelia in the collections formed during the 

 voyage of the Astrolabe by Capt. D'Urville (who had gathered them 

 in the Bay of Islands in 1827), he confounds them with Bassicea 

 Scolopendria, a common Port Jackson plant ; and thus our genus ap- 

 pears, in his volume on the Botany of New Zealand, under two 

 names, viz. the above one of BassicEa, and that of Lotus. 



RHAMNEiE, R. Br. 

 1. Carpodetus, Forst. Gen. t. 17. 



575. C. serratus. Forst. Prodr. n. 11. Char. Gen. t. 17. DC. Prodr.ii. 

 p. 29. A. Rich. Fl. Nov. Zel. p. 366. 



Piri-piri-water ab incolis dicitur. 



New Zealand (Middle Island).— 1773, G. Forster. (Northern Island.) 

 On the alluvial banks of rivers, occasionally in salt-water marshes, Wanga- 

 roa, &c. bearing fruit in December. — 1826, A. Cunningham. 



Arbuscula 10 — 20 pedalis, ramosa, ramis foliosis sparsis divaricatisve, 

 foliorum casu tuberculatis. Folia alterna, ovalia, oblonga, acuta, petiolata, 

 glanduloso-serrata, superne puberula, subtus discolora, glabra, reticulata. 

 Racemi axillares, terminalesve corymbosi. Calyx turbinatus ovario adna- 

 tus, limbo 5-partito, laciniis lineavibus deciduis. Corolla 5-petala, pe- 

 talis albis, sestivatione valvatis, calycis limbo duplo longioribus. Stamina 5, 

 filamentis subulatis cum petalis alternantibus. Stylus simplex, erectus, 



