PLATE 64.—COXELLA DIEFFENBACHII. 
Famity UMBELLIFER 4. ] [Genus COXELLA, CHEESEM. 
Coxella Dieffenbachii, Cheesem. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xliv (1912), 160. 
Ligusticum Dieffenbachii, Hook. /. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 729. 
Aciphylla Dieffenbachii, 7. Kirk, Students’ Fl. 211. 
The remarkable plant figured on this plate was discovered by Mr. H. H. 
Travers in 1863 during his first visit to the Chatham Islands. The collections 
formed on that occasion were placed in the hands of the late Baron Mueller, and 
were worked out in his little book entitled ‘“‘The Vegetation of the Chatham 
Islands,” published in 1864. Our plant was described and figured, but evidently 
from imperfect material, under the name of Gingidiwm Dieffenbachii, the specific 
name being intended to commemorate the services to botanical science of 
Dr. Ernst Dieffenbach, who was the first to examine the botany of the group. 
According to Mueller, the plant was gathered “in damp places under cliffs at 
the seashore”?; but he gives no information as to whether it was abundant 
or rare. I understand, however, that it was observed in small quantity during 
Mr. H. H. Travers’s second visit in 1871, although I have seen no specimens 
collected at that time. No further information was obtained until about 1895, 
when Mr. F. A. D. Cox forwarded flowering and fruiting specimens to Mr. Kirk. 
These formed the basis of the description given in his “ Students’ Flora” and of 
mine printed in the Manual. Since then, through the kind action of Mr. F. A. D. 
Cox and Captain Dorrien-Smith, I have received a much better series of specimens, 
from which the accompanying plate has been prepared. 
Previous writers have held very diverse views as to the systematic position of 
our plant. As already stated, Mueller associated it with Forster’s Gingidium ; 
Hooker transferred it to Ligusticum; while in the “Index Kewensis” it was 
placed in Angelica. Mr. Kirk disposed of it in Aciphylla, making the remark that 
“it will probably form the type of a new genus.” This latter view I believe to 
be correct. It differs from the typical Ligustica in the flattened and conspicuously 
winged fruit, one carpel being 3-winged and the other 2-winged, or very rarely both 
carpels are 3-winged. The vitte are unusually large, and are either 1 or 2 in the 
interspaces, with 2 or 3 on the commisural face. From Angelica it is separated 
by the equally winged fruit, by the smaller number of wings (or ribs), and by the 
number being unequal in the two carpels. It has much of the habit of Aciphylla, 
although the leaves and the bracts are never spinescent ; but differs in the flattened 
and winged carpels, and in the smaller number of wings (or ribs) to each carpel, 
to say nothing of the much larger vitte. Believing that it is best treated as a 
separate genus, Mr. Hemsley and myself have described it under the name of 
Coxella. This will commemorate the services to botanical science of Mr. F. A. D. 
Cox, of Whangamarino, Chatham Islands. During a lengthened residence in this 
remote outlier of the Dominion Mr. Cox has regularly and consistently collected 
specimens of the flora of the islands, communicating them to most New Zealand 
botanists, together with much valuable information. It is largely through his 
assistance in supplying material that our present knowledge of the Chatham Islands 
florula is in such a satisfactory position. 
At the present time Cozella Dieffenbachii is exceedingly rare, if not tending 
towards extinction, and is apparently confined to a few stations on the precipituous 
slopes of cliffs in the southern portion of the islands. In an interesting paper 
by Captain Dorrien-Smith, entitled “ An Attempt to introduce Olearia semidentata 
