T. Kirk. — On Neio Zealand Soiv-thistles. 265 



exactly agrees. Its characters will be found in the following 

 description : — 



Sonchus oleraceus, L., y. littoralis. 



Eobust, stems 1ft. to l^ft. high, sparingly branched, radical 

 leaves sessile, ovate-oblong, entire or sparingly lobed, obtuse, 

 finely or coarsely toothed, somewhat fleshy, rosulate, and 

 closely appressed to the ground ; cauline leaves few, acute, 

 auricles rounded or subacute. Outer involucral bracts acute, 

 inner obtuse; achenes glabrous, 3- 5-ribbed. 



Hab. On maritime cliffs from Auckland to Stewart Island, 

 but often local, and rarely occurring in great abundance. 



The uniformly undivided, rosulate, slightly fleshy leaves, 

 the more robust habit, and copious milky juice are well worthy 

 of notice, as is the large fleshy root. I have never seen this 

 form on cultivated laud, and, as far as I am aware, it is abso- 

 lutely restricted to maritime localities. The singular absence 

 of variation is a remarkable feature when this plant is com- 

 pared with the typical form and variety f3. 



It seems not unlikely that the plant observed by Banks 

 and Solander is identical wuth var. littoralis, the fruits of 

 which resemble those of var. /?, but are slightly larger. This 

 point could doubtless be settled by an examination of the 

 specimens in the Banksian Herbarium. It is worthy of note 

 that Dr. Anderson, who acted as naturalist in Cook's third 

 expedition, mentions the occurrence of " sow-thistks" in 

 Queen Charlotte Sound : there can be but little doubt that 

 the plant observed by him was var. littoralis. 



Shortly before my old friend Mr. J. D. Enys, F.G.S., left the 

 colony he made a hasty trip to the Chatham Islands, where 

 he obtained specimens of a handsome sow-thistle, with leaves 

 upwards of 2ft. in length, and large flower-heads, which he 

 kindly sent to me, but unfortunately they were in such a bad 

 state of decay when they came to hand that I was unable to 

 dissect them. However, on examining the type collection of 

 Chatham Island plants in the herbarium of the Colonial 

 Museum I found two specimens, one of which was S. olera- 

 ceus, L. ; the other proved to be identical with the plant 

 collected by Mr. Enys. In justice to Mr. Buchanan, who 

 arranged the type collection, it should be mentioned that both 

 specimens are small, and in bad condition. Unhappily, my 

 efforts to obtain good specimens so far have failed, although 

 a valued correspondent sent me a strong root, which, however, 

 failed to grow. It was therefore with no little pleasure I 

 learned that the plant had flowered in the rich collection of 

 native species cultivated by Messrs. Adams and Sons, of 

 Christchurch, and I am indebted to these gentlemen for their 

 kindness in sending the shrivelled receptacles and ripe fruits. 



