446 Transactions. — Botany. 



Art. XL. — Notes on Several Species of Delesseria, One being 



New. 



By EoBEBT M. Laing, B.Sc. 



[Read before the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, 4th November, 



1S96.] 



Plates XXVII. and XXVIII. 



Delesseria eras siner via, Mont., Voy. au Pole Sud. 



Hooker, in his "Handbook of the New Zealand Flora," 

 p. 683, amongst other species of Delesseria, includes D. crassi- 

 nervia, originally described by Montagne (Prodr. Ant., p. 3), 

 but afterwards more fully described and figured by the same 

 writer in Voy. au Pole Sud : Botanique, vol. i., p. 16i, and 

 tab. 8, fig. 1. In the Handbook the New Zealand habitats of 

 the plant are given as the Auckland and Campbell Islands, 

 and also, on the authority of Lyall, Euapuke Harbour and 

 Stewart Island. Montague's plant came from the Auckland 

 Islands. 



J. G. Agardh, on the other hand (" Epicrisis Floridearum," 

 pp. 490 and 492), discards the specific name crassinervia from 

 his list of recognised species, retaining it only in a foot-note 

 with Montague's original description attached. He, however, 

 describes, on his own authority, a species, D. montagneana, 

 which he doubtfully considers — and erroneously as I believe — 

 to be D. crassinervia, Mont.; and he also states — again 

 . erroneously — that Hooker's plant is not entitled to its specific 

 name, as it is different from Montague's. He himself does 

 not adopt the specific name crassinervia, as he considers his 

 plant differs in some important details from the description 

 given by Montagne (Prodr. Ant., p. 3). He considers it safer 

 to redescribe his species under the new specific name — i.e., D. 

 montagneana. The D. crassinervia of Harvey {i.e., of Hooker's 

 Handbook) he refers to a new species, D. phyllophora, remark- 

 ing that apparently several species have been confounded 

 under the name D. crassinervia. 



Now, I wish to show — (a) That we have in New Zealand D. 

 crassinervia, Mont., and that the specific name must therefore 

 stand ; {h) that D. crassinervia of the Handbook probably 

 includes two species, one of which is the true D. crassinervia ; 

 (c) that apparently Agardh has not seen D. crassinervia, Mont., 

 and consequently has endeavoured to assimilate it to several 

 other species, and that therefore he is quite in error in his 

 attempt to explain away the specific value of the name. 



(a.) Montague's specimen was apparently an old one, or 



