PLATE 118.—SCAISVOLA GRACILIS. 
Famity GOODENIACE/.. | [Genus SCANVOLA, Liv. 
Scevola gracilis, Hook. /. in Journ. Linn. Soc. i (1857), 129; Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. 395. 
F) 
Distant over six hundred miles from New Zealand, and surrounded by an 
immensely deep ocean, lie the Kermadec Islands, a chain of four widely separated 
islands stretching in a south-west to north-east direction. All are of small size ; 
the largest, known by the name of Sunday Island, being under seven miles in length 
by less than five in breadth. Their situation, rather more than half-way between 
New Zealand and the Tongan Islands, gives special importance to them in any 
inquiries respecting the origin of the New Zealand flora, and I am pleased to be 
able to figure three or four of their endemic plants in this work. 
Scavola gracilis, the subject of this plate, was first collected on Sunday Island 
by Messrs. Milne and McGillivray, of H.M.S. “ Herald,” which, under the command 
of Captain Denham, visited the group in 1854. In August, 1887, I accompanied 
an expedition to the Kermadec Islands for the purpose of annexing the group to 
the Colony of New Zealand, and formed a tolerably complete collection of its flora, 
finding S. gracilis fairly plentiful in rocky places both on Sunday Island and 
Macaulay Island. It was also gathered on Sunday Island by Miss Shakespear in 
1904; and in 1907 by Mr. R. B. Oliver, who made a stay of nine months on the 
island investigating its fauna and flora. 
S. gracilis forms a procumbent undershrub from 2 ft. to 3 ft. or even 4 ft. high, 
with long straggling branches more or less densely clothed with silky hairs. The 
flowers are small, white with a yellow centre, sweet-scented, and are produced 
abundantly throughout the year. The fruit is white, succulent, about 3 in. long. 
Although usually found in rocky places, both on seacliffs and inland, it is by 
no means confined to such. Mr. Oliver, in his paper on “ The Vegetation’ of the 
Kermadec Islands” (Trans. N.Z. Inst. xli (1909), 172), records it, im addition, on 
sand-dunes, gravel-flats, land-slips, &c. So far it has not found its way into 
cultivation, but it would probably do well anywhere in the northern part of the 
North Island, and from its free-flowering habit might prove a welcome addition to 
our gardens. 
Puate 118. Scevola gracilis, drawn from specimens collected on the Kermadec Islands. Fig. 1, 
flower with the corolla removed (x 4); 2, corolla laid open, showing the glandular hairs on the inside 
of the tube (x3); 3, two of the glandular hairs (x 15); 4 and 5, front and back view of anthers 
(x 8); 6, longitudinal section of ovary (x5); 7, indusium, with one side cut away, showing the 
2-lobed stigma (x 5). 
