PLATE 32.—CARMICH ALIA WILLIAMSII. 
Famity LEGUMINOS4..] [Genus CARMICH ALIA, R. Br. 
Carmichelia Williamsii, 7. Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xii (1880), 394; Cheesem. Man. N.Z. 
Fl. 112. 
The genus Carmichalia includes a considerable number of species exceedingly 
difficult of discrimination. But in C. Williamsii, the subject of this plate, we have 
a plant which is perfectly distinct in habit, flowers, and fruit, and which cannot 
possibly be confounded with any other. The broad and thin branchlets (or cladodes), 
the large yellowish-red flowers, and the unusually large turgid pod are characters 
much too prominent to be easily overlooked. 
C. Williamsii was named in honour of the Right Rev. W. L. Williams, D.D., 
Bishop of Waiapu, who originally discovered it at Hicks Bay, in the East Cape 
district. It appears to have a very limited distribution, advancing westward as 
far as Te Kaha Point, and in an easterly direction barely reaching the East Cape. 
It is thus confined to a strip of coast-line scarcely fifty miles in length. In the Manual 
I have given the height of the plant at “from 3{t. to 8 tt. high,” but Bishop Williams 
informs me that it attains a much larger size, in some cases reaching 18 ft., with 
a trunk 4 in. in diameter. If so, it may be ranked as the tallest species of the genus ; 
C. australis rarely exceeding 12 ft. and C. odorata 10 ft. in height. The Lord Howe 
Island C. exsul, F. Muell, the only species of the genus not found in New Zealand, 
is said to reach the extreme height of 14 {t., but it is very imperfectly known. 
Some varieties of C. australis approach C. Williamsii in the breadth of the 
cladodes, and in the absence of flowers and fruit might easily be mistaken for it. 
But the large flowers and large turgid pod of C. Williamsii are widely different from 
the small lilac flowers and small compressed pod of C. australis, and flowering or 
fruiting specimens of the two species can be separated at a glance. 
Puate 32. Carmichelia Williamsii, drawn from specimens collected by Bishop Williams at Hicks 
Bay, East Cape district. Fig. 1, calyx laid open and petals removed to show the stamens (x 2); 
2, standard (x 2); 3, one of the wing-petals (x 2); 4, keel (x2); 5 and 6, front and back view of 
an anther (x 4); 7, ovary and style (x 3); 8, longitudinal section of ovary (x4); 9, seed (natural 
size) ; 10, seed (x 2); 11, section of seed, showing embryo (x 3). 
