tliat withstood the severe Winter of 1878-79. 57 



in our greenhouses and flower shows, has stood on a rockery 

 for the last three years, and appears quite hardy. 



13. AciPHYLLA CoLENSOi (the " Wild Spaniard " and 

 " Spear-grass " of the settlers, Kurikuri and Fapaii of the 

 natives). — In Sir J. D. Hooker's " Handbook of the New Zea- 

 land Flora" this extraordinary evergreen herbaceous ])lant is 

 described as forming a circular bush, 5 to 6 feet in diameter, 

 of bayonet-like spines, impenetrable to men and horses, 

 having 6 to 9 feet high flowering stems, covered with spread- 

 ing spinous leaflets. " In another description its leaflets 

 were stated to be as long, broad, and rigid as British 

 bayonets, and a great deal sharper." Induced by these 

 descriptions I procured a number of packets of " Wild 

 Spaniard" seed in difi'erent years, but only one of those 

 packets produced plants, and that after they had lain in the 

 soil over one year. Although a real umbellifer, it has more 

 an appearance of some of the dwarf palms ; and an eminent 

 botanist to whom I gave a plant, had it included among 

 these in a list of his rarities which he afterwards sent me. 

 The carrot-worms knew better, for on looking at my pot of 

 seedlings one morning I found that they had destroyed 

 more than the half of them. Planted on rockeries where 

 fully exposed, several plants have stood uninjured for five 

 or six years. The strongest of these flowered last summer, 

 when it sent up a flower-stem nearly 4 feet in height ; but 

 owing, I suppose, to the very wet and cold weather, it 

 damped or rotted off without perfecting seeds. 



14. Griselinia littoralis. — According to Capt. J. Camp- 

 bell Walker, this in its native localities is a handsome tree 30 

 to 40 feet in height, the timber of which is hard, compact, 

 and of great durability, valued for fencing-posts, sills, boat- 

 knees, &c. A plant, now about six feet high, has stood in 

 the open ground without injury for eight years. As an orna- 

 mental broad-leaved evergreen it is superior to the common 

 bay laurel, and is decidedly hardier than either it, the 

 Laurustinus, or the Aucuba japonica ; hence its cultivation 

 is being rapidly extended. Another species, G. macrophylla , 

 has been repeatedly killed in the open air, even although 

 having the protection of a south wall ; but its much larger 

 and very handsome foliage entitles it to a prominent place 

 among plants for house and table decoration. 



