KiKK. — On some New Zealand Plants. 501 



Abt. XLVII. — On Carmichaelia, Corallospartium, 

 Huttouella, and Notospartium. 



By T. KiKK, F.L.S. 



I Read before the Wellingtoii Philosophical Society, 17th February, 



1897.] 



Carmichaelia is perhaps the most characteristic of the many 

 remarkable endemic genera of New Zealand phanerogamic 

 plants, as, although absent from the larger outlying islands, 

 Stewart Island, and the Chathams, it is represented from the 

 North Cape to Foveaux Strait by numerous species, differ- 

 ing widely in habit and general appearance, but in all locali- 

 ties recognised by the settler as native broom and by the 

 Maori as viakaka. 



Although one of the very earliest New Zealand genera 

 collected by Europeans, our acquaintance with its numerous 

 species has been of slow growth. In 1769 Banks and Solander 

 collected the first species at Poverty Bay, and gave it the 

 MS. name of Genista ccmjoressa. The next species was dis- 

 covered by Forster in Dusky Sound, in 1772, and described in 

 G. Forster's " Prodromus " as Lotns arboreus. The genus 

 Carmichaelia was established by Eobert Brown in 1825, but 

 no additions were made until 1853, when four new species, 

 discovered by Colenso, were described in Hooker's " Flora 

 Novae-Zelandiae," Forster's plant being considered identical 

 with the Banksian Genista compressa. In the " Handbook 

 of the New Zealand Flora," published in 1864, the number 

 of species is increased to nine, two of which were dis- 

 covered by Colenso, but treated as varieties in the original 

 Flora, the other two being remarkable southern plants. In 

 1871 the lamented Baron Von Mueller described C. exsul, of 

 Lord Howe's Island, the tallest member of the genus, and the 

 only species found outside New Zealand, and in 1878 C. ivil- 

 liamsii was added to the flora. Numerous species have 

 been described since that date ; the number enumerated in 

 the " Students' Flora of New Zealand," now in the Press, is 

 twenty-five, arranged under the genera Carmichaelia, Corol- 

 lospartium, and Huttonella. Two species of Notospartiiivi 

 must also be enumerated. 



The species of Carmichaelia are admittedly difficult of defi- 

 nition. The learned author of the " Flora Novae-Zelandiae " 

 wrote : " The species are extremely difficult to distinguish, 

 and require much further elucidation on the spot ; the charac- 

 ters employed appear far too variable " (i., 50) ; and in the 



