PLATE 119.—PRATIA PHYSALOIDES. 
Famity CAMPANULACE/.. ] [Genus PRATIA, Gaup. 
Pratia physaloides, Hemsl. Ic. Plant. sub. t. 1532. 
Colensoa physaloides, Hook. /. Fl. Nov. Zel. i, 157; Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. 397. 
This fine plant was one of the many discoveries made by Richard Cunningham, 
who visited New Zealand in the years 1833-34, and who collected it at 
Whangaroa, Matauri Bay, and in some stations in the Bay of Islands. His brother 
Allan, who made a similar journey in 1824, and who was the author of the well- 
known ‘“ Flore Insularum Nove Zelandiz Precursor,” described the plant under 
the name of Lobelia physaloides, and Sir W. J. Hooker figured it under the same title 
in the ‘‘ Icones Plantarum ”’ (tt. 555-56). Mr. Colenso, who arrived in New Zealand 
at the close of 1834, shortly made the acquaintance of our plant: and it was also 
gathered by Dr. Dieffenbach in the North Cape district in 1839. From that time it 
has been observed by many botanists in the northern portion of the Auckland 
Provincial District, although it must be looked upon as a somewhat rare and local 
species. 
The discovery that the fruit is succulent at once proved that the plant could not 
be retained in Lobelia, all the species of which have capsular fruit. In the “ Flora 
Nove Zelandie ” Sir J. D. Hooker therefore proposed the genus Colensoa for its 
reception. More recent investigations, however, have shown that the genus is 
hardly satisfactory. Hooker himself has drawn attention to its close relationship 
to Pratia, which only differs “in the usually small size and creeping habit of the 
species, their more equal corolla-lobes, and solitary flowers, and in some or all the 
anthers being strongly bearded or terminated by bristles. In other respects Colensoa 
is a gigantic Pratia” (Bot. Mag. sub. t. 6864). In the same year (1886) that the 
above was published Mr. Hemsley, with the approval of Sir J. D. Hooker, reduced 
Colensoa to Pratia (Ic. Plant. sub. t. 1532); and Schonland, in “ Die Naturlichen 
Pflanzenfamilien,” has followed a similar course. Under these circumstances, the 
accompanying plate appears under the name of Pratia physalordes. 
I greatly regret to see the name of Colensoa disappear from the list of the genera 
of New Zealand plants, and feel sure that all those will agree with me who are 
acquainted with the history of New Zealand botany during the long period—1834 
to 1899—when Mr. Colenso was an active worker, not only in the botany of his 
adopted country, but in many other brenches of science. I cannot resist quoting 
the appreciation of his work published by Sir J. D. Hooker in 1886, when, speaking 
of Colensoa, he says, “ The name it bears is that of one who well deserves the name 
of the patriarch of living New Zealand naturalists, the friend of Allan Cunningham, 
who botanized the northern Island in 1838; the companion of Darwin in some of his 
rambles about the Bay of Islands in 1835; and the zealous aider of the naturalists 
of the Antarctic expedition in 1841. Of him it is written in the preface to the 
‘Handbook of the New Zealand Flora’ that during many successive years he has 
collected throughout the whole length of the northern Island with great care and 
skill, discovering more rare and new plants than any botanists since Banks and 
Solander, and that in every respect Mr. Colenso is the foremost New Zealand 
botanical explorer, and the one to whom the author of the flora of that country 
is the most indebted for specimens and observations.” 
Pratia physaloides is a handsome plant, and is certainly worth wider cultivation 
than is the case at present, especially as it succeeds well in any ordinary garden- 
soil. When well grown its slender graceful habit, bold foliage, and numerous oddly 
shaped pale-blue flowers present a decidedly attractive appearance. 
Pare 119. Pratia physaloides, drawn from specimens collected in Spirits Bay, in the North 
Cape Peninsula. Fig. 1, flower, with the corolla removed (x2); 2, anthers (x 3); 3, transverse 
section of ovary (x 2). 
