PuateE 2.—CLEMATIS PARVIFLORA. 
Famity RANUNCULACE.] [Genus CLEMATIS, Linn. 
Clematis parviflora, A. Cunn. Precur. n. 636; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. 1, 7; Cheesem. Man. N.Z. 
Fi. 4. 
Clematis parviflora is one of the many species first collected by the talented 
and enthusiastic Allan Cunningham, who in 1826 and again in 1838 explored a 
large part of the district lying between the Bay of Islands, Hokianga, and 
Whangaroa. In those days botanical exploration was a very different matter from 
what it is at the present time, when no part of the Dominion is far removed from 
settlement, roads, or even railways. The journeys made by the two Cunninghams, 
Bidwill, Dieffenbach, Colenso, and others involved great hardships, much fatigue, 
and no small amount of danger; and no estimate of the labours of these early 
pioneers is complete which does not take the circumstances of the times into 
consideration. 
Cunningham gathered C. parviflora at Whangaroa in 1826, finding it in 
“thickets on the skirts of forests,” and published it in his ‘ Precursor,” issued 
during the years 1836-39. Soon afterwards it was collected in various localities 
in the northern portion of the North Island by Colenso, Bidwill, and others. Since 
then the typical state of the species has been found to range from the Three Kings 
Islands and the North Cape to the East Cape and the northern portion of Hawke’s 
Bay, but is seldom present in much quantity, and is often decidedly local. It is 
perhaps more common on the Little Barrier Island than in any other locality known 
to me. I am not aware that the typical form has been found in the South Island ; 
but a variety with small leaves and caudate sepals was discovered at Nelson by 
Mr. W. T. L. Travers many years ago, but has not since been seen. Another variety 
with small trilobed leaflets, which also occurs in the North Island, has been 
collected at Okarita by Mr. A. Hamilton. 
C. parviflora can always be distinguished from C. fatida, which is its nearest 
ally, by the small size, slender habit, smaller submembranous leaflets, narrower 
silky sepals, and particularly by the broad oblong anthers, which have a minute 
rounded knob at the tip of the connective. I am indebted to Mr. Hemsley for 
pointing out to me that my specimens from the Little Barrier Island and 
Cunningham’s type from Whangaroa both show three sorts of individuals—males, 
females, and hermaphrodites. But in the last many of the anthers and carpels 
appear to be sterile. 
Puate 2. Clematis parviflora. The portions marked A drawn from specimens collected on the 
Little Barrier Island by Miss Shakespear; that marked B from Cunningham’s type preserved in the 
Kew Herbarium. Fig. 1, stamen (x6); 2. carpel from flower (x6); 3, ripe carpel—all from 
Little Barrier specimens; 4 and 5, stamens from hermaphrodite flowers, Cunningham’s type 
specimen. 
