Platk 122.— GAULTHEKIA PEKPLEXA. 



Family KRICACE^.] [(Jknus UAULTHERIA, Kahn. 



Gaultheria perplexa, T. Kirk in Trans. N.Z. I,i.st. xxix (I8!(7), 538 ; Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. 406. 



(laultheria perplexa is an exceedingly puzzling plant. From a physiognomic 

 point of view it is very different from any of the varieties of G. antipoda, but at 

 the same time it is not easy to find any floral or carpological characters in which 

 the two plants do not agree. Hence Sir J. I). Hooker, in the "Flora Novse 

 Zelandiae," treated it as a variety of G. antipoda, his reference to it being simply 

 " var. ciliata : foliis parvis coriaceis lanceolatis serratis, dentibus setigeris." On 

 the whole, we must regard it as a somewhat critical species, only to be separated 

 from G. antipoda by the long and flexuous much and closely interlaced branches, 

 and by the small and narrow leaves, the teeth of wliich are bristle-pointed. 



So far as I am aware, G. perplexa was first collected by Mr. Colenso in 1847 

 on the elevated plateau to the east of Ngauruhoe and Ruapehu. It has since been 

 gathered in many localities both in the North and South Island, and must be 

 regarded as of fairly common occurrence in mountain districts from Lake Taupo 

 southwards to Stewart Island, where it attains its southern limit. According to 

 Mr. Aston, it ascends to .5.000 ft. on the Kaimanawa Mountains ; while on the 

 central volcanic plateau of the North Island it is usually seen between 2,000 ft. 

 and 4,000 ft. In not a few localities in the South Island it descends to sea- 

 level ; Mr. Townson, for instance, finding it not unconimon on sand-dunes between 

 Westport and Charleston ; and Mr. Kirk near the entrance to the Bluff Harbour 

 and on Stewart Island. 



G. perplexa has a wide range of habitats. Its occurrence on fixed sand- 

 dunes has just been mentioned, and it has also been recorded from peaty 

 heaths so moist as almost to deserve the name of bogs (Cockayne, " Report, 

 on Stewart Island," 27). Inland, however, its usual habitat is in stony river- 

 valleys, where it is generally mixed with Discaria, Coprosma, &c., a particularly 

 favourite station being where an old shingle-fan almost overgrown with shrubby 

 vegetation impinges upon the valley ; or, as at the base of Ruapehu, it may 

 be seen in scattered patches amongst the covering of Danthonia Raoidii and 

 Poa ccBspitosa so widely spread in subalpine districts. 



Plate 122. Gaultheria perplexa, drawn from specimens collected in the BuUer Valley, Nelson, 

 at an altitude of 1,200 ft. Fig. 1, leaf and flower (x 4) ; 2, flower, with the corolla and part of the 

 calyx removed (x 6) ; 3, longitudinal section of corolla, showing the stamens (x 5) ; 4 and 5, stamens 

 (xlO); 6, transverse section of ovary (x8); 7, ripe fruit (x2); 8, seed (enlarged); 9, embryo 

 (enlarged). 



