PLATE 115.—SENECIO GEMINATUS. 
Famity COMPOSIT. } [Genus SENECIO, Linn. 
Senecio geminatus, 7. Kirk, Students’ Fl. 350; Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. 384. 
Traversia baccharoides, Hook. /. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 164. 
The first specimens of this very distinct plant were obtained by Dr. Sinclair 
in the year 1860 in the Upper Awatere and Wairau Valleys. A few years later 
it was collected by Mr. W. T. L. Travers on the Discovery Peaks, in the Upper 
Waiau Valley, and on the Hurunui Mountains in northern Canterbury. In 1865 
it was gathered by Sir Julius von Haast in the Upper Waimakariri, while in 1881 
it was found by myself on the Mount Arthur Range. The species thus ranges from 
north-west Nelson to the middle of the Canterbury Alps, and of late years specimens 
have been obtained from many localities between these points. It is apparently 
common on many of the mountains of Marlborough. On Mount Mouatt, according 
to Mr. Buchanan, it descends to 2,000 ft., and I believe that Mr. Kirk traced it to 
an even lower altitude on Mount Fyffe. On the western side of the watershed 
of the South Island I only know of it from Lake Rotoiti, and the Upper Buller Valley, 
where it descends to 1,500ft. It was not observed by Mr. Townson in_ his 
exploration of the Westport district. I have not myself seen it at a higher 
elevation than 4,500 ft., but Hooker quotes 5,500 ft. in the “‘ Handbook,” on the 
authority of Mr. Travers. 
S. gemimatus is a very isolated species, with no near allies. It differs from 
Senecio, as Sir J. D. Hooker has observed, in the rigid pappus and coriaceous involu- 
cral scales. The leaves are of a very similar type to those of the American genus 
Baccharis ; and their venation, according to Hooker, “recalls that of the Juan 
Fernandez genera Balbisia and Robinsonia.” These characters induced Hooker 
to describe it as the type of a new genus under the name of T'raversia baccharoides ; 
but in the “Genera Plantarum” Bentham and Hooker concurred in reducing 
Traversia to Senecio. In the “ Students’ Flora” Mr. Kirk therefore replaced it 
in the genus, giving it the new specific name of geminatus, on the ground that the 
term baccharoides was already preoccupied by a South American plant (Senecio 
baccharoides, H. B. K.), and I adopted the same course in the Manual. Further 
inquiry, however, has led me to doubt whether Mr. Kirk’s action can be justified, 
for many years ago the American S. baccharoides was transferred to the genus 
Gynoxys, leaving the specific name open to use. In 1897 this was recognized by 
Hoffman in “ Die Naturlichen Pflanzenfamilien ” (teil iv, abt. 5, p. 299), and Hooker’s 
specific name adopted. 
So far as my own observations go, S. geminatus forms a small spreading shrub, 
seldom more than 4{t. or 5 ft. in height, and often less. The young branchlets, 
leaves, and involucral scales are more or less glutinous, not a common character in 
Senecio, but one more or less general in Baccharis. 
PuaTe 115. Senecio geminatus, drawn from specimens collected by Mr. F. G. Gibbs on Mount 
Owen, Nelson, at an altitude of 3,000 ft. Fig. 1, mvolucral bracts (x6); 2, floret, showing the 
tubular corolla with revolute lobes (x6); 3, the same with the corolla-lobes spread out (x 6); 
4, pappus-hairs (x 12); 5, anthers (x 15); 6, style-branches (x 12). 
