Petrie. — On New Native Plants. 273 



truly native to our Islands. I found it growing in considerable 

 abundance in sparse scrub, at Kelly's Creek, Otira Eiver 

 (1,100ft.), in January of the present year. G. ciinningliaviil, 

 Hook, f., grows pretty plentifully in the same district, 

 but it flowers some weeks earlier. It was this difference in 

 the time of flowering that led me to examine critically the 

 flowers of the present plant, and recognise its independence. 

 Unfortunately but one or two spikes had come into flower 

 when I had to leave Kelly's Creek, but these exactly match 

 the excellent figure given in Sir Joseph Hooker's "Flora 

 Tasmanise." 



G. scsamoides is very similar to G. cunninghamii, but 

 an observer is at once struck by its stouter stems, and their 

 paler mottled-grey colour. It is not so tall as Hooker's plant, 

 and does not seem to affect such deep shade. 



The undoubted species of Gastrodia occurring in New 

 Zealand are thus raised to three, for Mr. Buchanan's 

 G. hcctori clearly does not belong to this genus, and it 

 seems doubtful if the species described by Mr. Colenso, F.R.S., 

 are really different from G. ciinninghamii and the present 

 plant. 



12, Helichrysum purdiei, D. Petrie. 



This pretty plant has been in cultivation for some years in 

 several gardens in Dunedin. It forms large circular patches 

 of densely-compacted twigs, spread flat on the ground. The 

 patches reach a diameter of 3ft. or 4ft. in three or four years, 

 and as the prostrate branches, which are often as stout as a 

 goose-quill, readily strike root, they give promise of growing 

 to a much larger size. The plant is found wild only near the 

 seaside, and it is very sensitive to frost, which, in situations 

 that are at all exposed, kills off the younger growth every 

 winter. In habit it differs widely from the other species of 

 Selichrysum native to New Zealand. Mr. W. T. Thiselton 

 Dyer, F.R.S., Director of the Kew Gardens, informs me 

 that its nearest ally is a South African species. It seems 

 to be almost extinct about Dunedin, where it was plentiful 

 on seaside slopes in the early days, as Mr. A. C. Purdie 

 informs me. From its slight power of resisting frost, it is 

 not unlikely that its head-quarters lie more to the north, 

 though it has not yet been reported from any other place than 

 the shores of Otago Harbour. In cultivation it shows no sign 

 of want of constitutional vigour, but it flowers much more 

 sparingly than in a wild state. 



13. Juncus obtusiflorus, Ehrhart. 



This European rush was found by me some years ago at 

 Lake Waihola, and this year I met wuth it again near the 

 mouth of the Avon River, at New Brighton, a suburb of 

 18 



