PLATE 70.—STILBOCARPA LYALLII ann STILBOCARPA 
POLARIS. 
Famity ARALIACE:.] [Genus STILBOCARPA, A. Gray. 
Stilbocarpa Lyallii, Armstr. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xiii (1881), 336. 
Aralia Lyallii, 7. Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xvii (1885), 295. 
Stilbocarpa polaris, A. Gray, Bot. U.S. Expl. Exped. 714; Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. 227. 
From the point of view of geographical distribution the genus Stilbocarpa 
is one of the most interesting found in the New Zealand area. It has no near 
allies; and although in technical characters it approaches Aralia on the one 
side, and the herbaceous species of Panax on the other, the affinity which it 
possesses with either is obscure and inconclusive. At the same time, these 
affinities appear to be sufficient to preclude the possibility of the genus having 
developed anywhere close to its present area of distribution. Consequently, the 
problem of what its ancestry has been, from what lands it has wandered, and 
how it arrived in its present habitat, become questions of some moment; and 
although answers cannot be provided at the present time, we may hope that 
patient inquiry and observation may yet supply them. 
The discovery of Stelbocarpa dates back to 1840, when S. polaris was collected 
on the Auckland Islands successively by Dr. Holmes, of the American Exploring 
Expedition; by Admiral D’Urville, the commandant of the French ships ‘ L’ Astro- 
labe’ and ‘La Zélée’; and by Sir J. D. Hooker, who, as is well known, accom- 
panied the Antarctic expedition of Sir James Clark Ross. It was made known to 
the scientific world in 1843, under the name of Aralia polaris, through a beautiful 
plate issued in advance of the ‘“ Botany of the ‘ Astrolabe’ and ‘ Zélée.’” 
Through a succession of mishaps, however, the letterpress for this and other 
plates did not appear until ten years later. In the meantime, it was figured 
by Hooker in the “Icones Plantarum”; and his description given in the 
“Flora Antarctica,” published in 1844, was the first good account to appear. 
In the “Flora Nove Zelandiz,” issued in 1853, Hooker expressed the opinion 
that the plant was “certainly of a different genus from Aralia proper, but in 
the present confused state of the natural order it is not expedient to separate 
it in this local flora on grounds which on extensive examination of the order 
may prove not to be the legitimate ones.” Further on he proposed the 
sectional name of Stilbocarpa, in allusion to the shining fruit. Dr. Asa Gray, 
writing in 1854 in the “ Botany of the United States Exploring Expedition ” 
(vol. i, p. 714), definitely established Stibocarpa as a distinct genus, pointing out 
that the acetabuliform fruit and styles fewer than the petals must exclude the 
plant from Aralia. 
All visitors to the Auckland and Campbell Islands agree in stating that 
S. polaris is an abundant plant, ranging from sea-level to a considerable height 
on the hills. In 1880 Professor J. H. Scott collected it on Macquarie Island, 
remarking that it “‘is found all over the island growing in large patches ” ; 
and Mr. A. Hamilton also obtained it in his later visit of 1894. In 1890 
Mr. T. Kirk recorded it as plentiful on Antipodes Island. The physiognomy of 
the plant has been. so often described that no detailed account need be given 
here. As Hooker has well remarked, it is “‘one of the most handsome and 
singular of the vegetable productions in the group of islands it inhabits, which 
certainly contains a greater proportion of large and beautiful plants, relatively 
to the whole vegetation, than any country with which I am acquainted.” 
Stilbocarpa Lyallii was originally discovered in Stewart Island by Dr. Lyall 
in the year 1848. Both in the Flora and the ‘“ Handbook” Sir J. D. Hooker 
included it in his circumscription of S. polaris, although in the last-mentioned 
publication he said that ‘“‘Lyall’s Southern Island specimen wants the long 
bristles, and may belong to another species.” In 1881 Mr. J. B. Armstrong, 
