Platk 144.— MYOSOTJS MONROI. 



Family BORAUINACE.E.I [Genus MYOSOTIS. Linn. 



Myosotis Monroi, Cheescm. Man. N.Z. Fl. 169. 



This attractive little plant was originally discovered by Sir David Monro about 

 the year 1854 on Dun Mountain, Nelson. Specimens forwarded at that time t(j 

 Kew were referred by Sir J. D. Hooker to the little-known M. saxosa, an obscure 

 plant gathered by Colenso on the summit of Titiokura, Hawke's Bay, and which has 

 not since been met with. Monro's plant, however, has proved to be comparatively 

 abundant on the Dun Mountain Range, and has been gathered by most New Zealand 

 botanists, and among them Travers, Hector, Buchanan, Kirk, and myself. Up to 

 the present time, however, it has not been found in any other district, and is 

 apparently confined to the Dun Mountain Range and its southern continuation 

 as far as the Red Hills, in the Wairau Valley, a distance of about thirty-five miles. 

 Its altitudinal range is from 3,U00 ft. to 4,500 ft. 



For many years I entertained suspicions that the Dun Mountain plant was 

 different from that discovered on Titiokura by Colenso ; but, as all attempts to find 

 the latter proved abortive, no positive conclusions could be arrived at. Knowing 

 that Colenso's types were at Kew, I applied to Mr. N. E. Brown, of the Kew 

 Herbarium, asking him to compare specimens of the two plants. As he reported 

 that they were clearly and absolutely distinct, I described the Nelson plant as a 

 separate species in the Manual, applying to it the name of its discoverer. 



M. Monroi belongs to the section Exarrhena, in which the anthers extend far 

 above the corolla-tube. As a species it is well marked by its comparatively small 

 size and slender habit ; by the rather narrow lanceolate-spathulate leaves, hispid 

 above with short white hairs, but often almost glabrous beneath ; by the many- 

 fiowered racemes of bright-yellow flowers ; by the linear acute calyx-lobes and 

 funnel-shaped corolla ; and by the stamens equalling or even slightly exceeding 

 the corolla-lobes. Judging from the description given by Hooker in the " Flora," 

 M. saxosa differs in its shorter and stouter habit, in the broader leaves very densely 

 hispid with long soft hairs, and in the few-flowered racemes of white flowers. 



Plate 144. Myosotis Monroi, drawn from specimens gathered by Mr. F. G. Gibbs on Dun Moun- 

 tain, Nelson, at an altitude of nearly 4.000 ft. Fig. 1 . flower ( x 3) ; 2, section of calyx, showing 

 ovary and style ( x 4) ; 3, corolla laid open ( x 4) ; 4, ripe fruit ( x 6). 



