198 NOTES ON SOME PLANTS OF OTAGO, NEW ZEALAND. 
2. Genus CARMICHALIA. 
Only i in the young state do its species bear an extremely minute in- 
conspicuous foliage; so that the plants are almost virtually leafless, 
and have, in this respect, more an Australian than a New Zealand 
physiognomy. During its flowering season the flower frequently ap- 
pears alone, without a trace of foliage; but the flowers are insufficient 
as regards either number or size to relieve the barrenness of the filiform 
naked branches. The development of foliage depends greatly on 
habitat. On hot, dry, dusty, exposed roadsides, for instance, the 
plant is frequently a mere mass of bare, leafless, flowerless, rigid, or 
twiggy branches, resembling a bundle of our ** Broom” twigs (Saro- 
thamnus scoparius, Wimm.) stripped of their foliage. In this con- 
dition it is one of the “ shabbiest-looking " shrubs in Otago,—very 
unlike the * bonny Broom” of Scotland, with which the settlers take 
the liberty of comparing it! But in the shade and moisture of the 
ush the same shrub becomes comparatively leafy, flowery, and hand- 
some. Under ew/fivation,—as in shrubberies,—the plant becomes 
ornamental (I saw, in 1867, some species cultivated in the Botanic 
Garden of Edinburgh). The leafless twigs are naturally somewhat 
succulent—a property which is increased by cultivation or by habitat, 
—so that Buchanan suggests that some of those species that have 
the habit of the common Broom, and abound with succulent twigs, 
which are greedily eaten by horses, might be introduced among furze- 
copse as hill-fodder in the colony itself. 
Species of this genus are common in the bush and scrub of Stewart's 
Island (Port William and Paterson's Inlet), and in various parts of 
the west coast (Preservation Inlet and Chalky Bay, Hector). These 
probably include C. crassicaulis, Hook. f., C. nana, Col., C. grandiflora, 
Hook. f., C. australis,* Br., and C. flagelliformis, Col., some of which 
are mem or subalpine, ascending to 5000 feet. 
The genus Carmichelia is one whose species should be carefully 
studied by local botanists in the living state, inasmuch as our know- 
* This species appears to be more familiar to the Era: than any other of 
its genus, if we may judge from the number of — under which it is known. 
These include the following :—* Maukaro" or * Maukoro:" “ Neinei” (Lyall) — - 
also Spplied ù s ay N cpt Island Dracophlum l latifolium, ai Come (lens): 
cak to an Orchid, Orthoceras Sola 
kaka, m n Wakake? (Lya i-a erm so like ** Maka be ^. as ebr mem rise to wi 
suspicion that, in one or other case, the initial eri is an error ? 
