Platk l:J5.— PAKSOXSIA HP:TKK()PHYLLA. 



Family APOCYNACE^.l [Genus PARSONSIA, R. Br. 



Parsonsia heterophylla, A. Cnnn. Precur. n. 402 : (Viee.ieiii. Man. .V.Z. Fl. 140. 



Judging from Solander's descriptions and drawings, both the species of Parsonsia 

 known in New Zealand were observed in Cook's first voyage, either at " Opuragi " 

 (Mercury Bay) or " Totaranui " (Queen Charlotte Sound). Solander, in his 

 '' Primitite Floras Novae Zelandiae," applied the name of Periploca capsularis to 

 both species, distinguishing the subject of this plate as var. latifolia, and the other, 

 now known as Parsonsia capsularis, as var, anqustifolia. But Solander's names were 

 never actually published, and hence when Forster, in his " Prodromus," applied the 

 name of Periploca capsularis to the small-flowered species with exserted anthers, 

 the larger-flowered plant with included anthers was left without a name. 

 Consequently A. Cunningham, who gathered it in several localities, and who fully 

 recognized its differences from Forster's plant, was quite justified in bestowing upon 

 it the very appropriate name of Parsonsia heterophylla. 



P. heterophylla has a remarkably wide range, being found from the Three Kings 

 Islands and the North Cape through the whole length of the North and South 

 Islands to Stewart Island, and from sea-level to an altitude of nearly 3,000 ft. There 

 are very few lowland or montane districts of moderate elevation in which it is not a 

 fairly abundant plant. The allied species P. capsularis, although it has an almost 

 equally extensive range, is far less plentiful, and is absent from several districts 

 of considerable size. Both plants are of easy cultivation in any ordinary aarden- 

 soil, and are now frequently seen in gardens. 



Both of our species of Parsonsia are remarkable for the heterophylly of their 

 foliage, but it is more conspicuous in P. heterophylla than in P. capsularis. In the 

 accompanying plate I have figured some of the chief leaf-variations seen in 

 P. heterophylla, but it would require many plates to show the whole of those which 

 can be observed. A plant cultivated for many years in my own garden started life 

 as a seedling very similar to the one figured in the plate, and for some years the 

 foliage showed little change. The leaves then became slightly broader, with more 

 or less undulate or lobed margins. This tendency to irregularity in the margin of 

 the leaf gradually increased, the margins being most irregularly lobed, those on the 

 same branch showing great diversity of shape. Occasionally (compare with 

 Hooker's remarks on Raoul's P. rosea, given in his " Florae Novae Zelandite," i, 180) 

 one of the opposite leaves would be broad or narrow spathulate, while the other would 

 be narrow linear or oblong. Gradually a considerable number of oblong leaves 

 similar to those figured on the flowering specimen appeared, and the plant com- 

 menced to flower. This was the signal for a rapid disappearance of the spathulate 

 and irregularly lobed leaves, and in three or four years all the leaves on the plant 

 were of the same type as those of the flowering specimen shown on the plate. 



Plate 135. Parsonsia helerophijlla, drawn from specimens obtaiued in the vicinity of Auckland, 

 showing the difference between the foliage of the seedling, juvenile plant, and the adult. Ficr. 1,' 

 flower (x 4) ; 2, section of same (x 5) ; 3, flower with the corolla removed, showing the calyx, •'la'nds! 

 and ovaiy (x 5) ; 4 and 5, front and back view of anthers (x 10) ; 6. stigma (x 10) ; 7, lon'^'itudinai 

 section of ovary (x 10) ; 8, seed (x 2) ; 9, section of same, showing embryo (x 7). 



