PLATE 72.—PANAX ANOMALUM. 
Famiry ARALIACE4.] [Genus PANAX, Linn. 
Panax anomalum, Hook. in Lond. Journ. Bot. i (1843), 422; Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. 230. 
The typical form of this curious plant is one of the many interesting 
discoveries made by Mr. Colenso during the early part of his long and active 
residence in New Zealand. He first observed it in swampy forests by the 
Waikato River in the year 1842, and specimens collected by him in that 
locality were figured and described by Sir W. J. Hooker in the following year. 
Since then it has been noted in many places between Kaitaia, in the extreme 
north, and the valley of the Waikato. The var. microphyllum, which is the 
form selected for illustration here, has a much more extensive and more southern 
distribution. It was first collected by Mr. Bidwill in some locality in the 
Nelson Provincial District, but is now known to range from the Middle Waikato 
to Southland, with an outlying locality in the Rakiahua Valley, Stewart Island. 
It occurs from sea-level to an altitude of 2,500 ft. or more. It differs from 
the type chiefly in the smaller size, smaller and often narrower leaves, and more 
glabrous habit. 
Panax anomalum, as it was well named by Sir W. J. Hooker, is quite 
unlike any other member of the genus. Its small size, setose branchlets, and 
few-flowered umbels, often reduced to a single flower, are very remarkable 
characters; but, in addition, its widely divaricating and often interlaced or 
zigzag branches give it a most peculiar aspect, altogether different from that of 
any of its allies, but very similar, so far as superficial characters are concerned, 
to a considerable number of plants belonging to widely separated families, such 
as Melicytus micranthus, Melicope simplex, Myrsine divaricata, Paratrophis hetero- 
phylla, several Coprosme, and young states of Elwocarpus Hookerianus and 
Pennantia corymbosa. Most of these agree so closely in the mode of ramifica- 
tion, in the size, shape, and even colour of the leaf, and in the production of 
small and usually unisexual flowers, that it is almost impossible to distinguish 
them at a little distance; while dried specimens of several of them have been 
confounded by excellent botanists. To my mind, all attempts that have been 
made to explain why a number of plants of diverse relationships should have 
assumed a form so closely similar that they can hardly be distinguished without 
minute examination, or, in short, why they should apparently mimic a common 
standard of growth and habit, have fallen far short of solving the difficulties of 
the case. No sufficient reason has also been.given for the curious fact that so 
many of these plants grow intermixed in large numbers, in some cases forming 
special associations of their own, and that their chief habitat is in alluvial 
soils or along the banks of rivers. 
In the ‘ Pflanzenfamilien” all the New Zealand species of Panax are 
referred to Miquel’s genus Nothopanax, a course which has been followed by 
Dr. Cockayne. As explained in the Manual, I retain the species in Panax for 
the present because the classification of the family is admittedly in an unsettled 
condition, and because many changes are sure to follow when it is thoroughly 
worked up. In all probability the New Zealand species at present included in 
Panax (or Nothopanax) will ultimately find their way into more than one genus. 
For instance, I can hardly suppose that the botanists of the future will retain 
P. anomalum and P. arboreum in the same genus. 
Pirate 72. Panax anomalum var. microphyllum, drawn from specimens collected at Norsewood, 
Hawke’s Bay, and Foxhill, Nelson, adult and seedling. Fig. 1, unifohate leaf from mature plant (x 4) ; 
2, fully expanded male flower and bud (x 8); 3, female flower, with the petals removed (x 8); 4 and 5, 
front and back view of anthers (x 10); 6, transverse section of ovary (x 10); 7, ripe fruit (x 4); 
8, longitudinal section of same, showing seeds (x 4); 9, transverse section of same (x 4); 10, embryo 
(x 12). 
