Lepidium.] CRUCIFER. 39 
Nort Isuanp: Var. frondosum: Banks and Solander; Three Kings 
Island, Little Barrier Island, Cuvier Island, 7. F.C. Var. acutidentatum : 
Shaded and rocky places near the sea; once plentiful, but now fast becoming 
scarce. SoutH IsLAND: Queen Charlotte Sound, Banks and Solander ! Nelson 
Harbour, Kirk ! Banks Peninsula, Armstrong ; Oamaru, Port Chalmers, Catlin’s 
River, Petrie! Srmwart Isuanp: Kirk. AvuckuAND IsLANDS: Bolton, Kirk! 
CHATHAM IsLANDsS: H. H. Travers, Cox ! Nau. November—March. 
Best known as ‘‘ Cook’s scurvy-grass.’’ The entire plant has a heavy dis- 
agreeable smell and hot biting taste. It was originally discovered by Banks and 
Solander during Cook’s first voyage, and at that time must have been abundant, 
for Dr. Solander speaks of it as ‘‘copiose in littoribus marinis,”? and Cook states 
that boat-loads of it were collected and used as an antiscorbutic by his crew. It 
is now quite extinct in several of the localities he visited, andis fast becoming 
rare in others. Its disappearance is due to cattle and sheep, which greedily eat 
it down in any locality they can reach. The figure in the unpublished Banksian 
plates represents var. frondoswm; but the specimens in the set of Banks and 
Solander’s plants presented to the colony by the Trustees of the British Museum 
all belong to var. acutidentatwm. 
2. L. Banksii, 7. Kirk, Students’ Fl. 35.— Perfectly glabrous. 
Stems slender, flexuous, branched, suberect, 12-18in. long. Leaves 
1-2in., distant, oblong- or linear-spathulate, sharply serrate or 
toothed above, below gradually narrowed into a short petiole or 
almost sessile. Racemes terminal. Flowers small. Stamens 4. 
Pods ovate, cordate at the base, slightly winged, broadly notched 
above; style equal to or slightly exceeding the notch.—L. oleraceum, 
A. Rich. Fl. Nowv. Zel. 310, t. 35 (non Forst.). 
SourH IstaAnp: Queen Charlotte Sound and Astrolabe Harbour, 4. Rich- 
ard; Pelorus Sound, J. Rutland! Kenepuru, J. Macmahon. 
Mr. Kirk appears to have founded this species on A. Richard’s plate, 
quoted above, and on a single specimen collected by Mr. Rutland in Pelorus 
Sound. Judging from this scanty material, there appears to be little to 
separate it from L. oleracewm var. acutidentatwm, except the slightly winged 
pod notched at the summit. But some of Mr. Petrie’s Otago specimens of 
Js. oleracewm show a minute notch, as also do those collected by Mr. Cox on the 
Chatham Islands. I much fear that the species is of doubtful validity. 
3. L. obtusatum, 7’. Kirk wm Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxiv. (1892) 
423.—Stems leafy, branched, prostrate or suberect, 6-12 in. long. 
Lower leaves on broad flat petioles, sometimes 2in. long; blade 
1-2in., oblong or oblong-spathulate, gradually narrowed into the 
petiole, obtuse, coarsely crenate or serrate. Cauline leaves sessile 
or nearly so, obovate or oblong-spathulate. Racemes numerous, 
terminating small leafy branches. Flowers small, white. Sta- 
mens 4. Fruiting pedicels slender, +in. long. Pods broadly 
ovate, slightly winged above, with a broad shallow notch ; 
style short, stout, about equalling the noteh.—Kirk, Students’ 
Fl, 35. 
Nort Isuanp: Auckland—Sea-clifis to the north of the Manukau Harbour, 
yvare, 7. F.C. Wellington—Maritime rocks at the entrance to Port Nicholson, 
Miss Kirk ! October—February. 
