202 Transactions.— Botany. 



small, 2 lines diameter, 4-fid, lobes spreading, nerved, the upper 

 3 narrow obtuse, the lower lobe narrower and acute ; tube short, 

 of equal length with calyx, much veined. Anthers 2, exserted, 

 large, cordate-reniform, bases divergent and much produced ; 

 filaments curved, stout, spreading ; style 3 lines long, flexuoun. 

 Capsule broadly ovate or sub-rhomboid, 2 lines long, sub- 

 compressed. 



Hah. Cliffs, sea-side, near Table Cape ; 1887 : Mr. H. 

 Hill. 



Ohs. I. The affinities of this plant are with V. macroura, 

 Hook, f., and with some states of V. salici folia, Foist. ; but I 

 think it to be abundantly distinct from both. I regret my 

 specimens having been damaged in their long transit. 



II. I have with much pleasure named this sea-side species 

 after our illustrious countryman and navigator, Cook ; and that 

 for two reasons : (1.) No plant of our New Zealand flora at 

 present bears his honoured name, though a genus was early 

 dedicated to him by the botanist Gmelin (since merged in 

 Pimelea) ; and, nearly forty years ago, our second species of 

 Phormium was named after him, which has also been altered : 

 while several New Zealand plants bear the names of subsequent 

 navigators in these our southern seas. (2.) In my selecting this 

 seaside shrub for this purpose, I have pleasingly fancied that it 

 was seen in its originally cliffy abode by Cook and his party, 

 while slowly and closely coasting along the bold shores of Table 

 Cape, on their leaving Poverty Bay for Hawke's Bay. 



2. V. compacta, sp. nov. 



Plant small, shrubby, sub-prostrate and ascending, 4-6 

 inches high, much and closely branched ; branches short, 

 slender, rooting, very leafy, pubescent, with a line of large 

 white hairs decurrent on each side from petiole (resembling 

 Stellaria media). Leaves small, numerous and close, elliptic 

 and obovate, 1-2-3 lines long, obtuse, deeply cut-crenulate, 

 1-2 (or, rarely, 3) incisions on each side, thick, green, glandular- 

 hairy and ciliate; margins thickened; midrib sunk and coloured 

 on upper surface ; petioles short, stout, dilated at base, semi- 

 amplexicaul. Flowers sub-terminal, on rather long slender 

 axillary sub-corymbose panicles, erect, 2-2i inches long, G-8- 

 flowered ; flowers distant, free ; pedicels long, spreading, slender, 

 \ inch long ; bracts ovate ; peduncles, pedicels, bracts, and 

 calyces glandular-hairy. Calycine lobes 4, cut to base, sub- 

 ovate, obtuse, 3-4-ncrved, half the length of capsule. Capsule 

 large (for plant), sub-orbicular, 2 lines diameter, turgid, glabrous, 

 not compressed. Seeds small, numerous, broadly-elliptic or 

 sub-orbicular, smooth, flatfish and sub-concave on one side, and 

 slightly gibbous on the other. 



