30 A NEW ZEALAND NATURALIST'S CALENDAR. 



more than merely interesting, they frequently lead to 

 suggestions from which come practical discoveries. As far 

 as I know no fossil remains of tutu have ever been recog- 

 nised, and the only parts likely to leave any identifiable 

 fossils would be the leaves and steins ; but it seems to me 

 quite possible (I will not say probable) that such clues to 

 its past history may yet be found. A statement of an 

 analogous case will show that my supposition is not 

 unfounded. Everyone is familiar nowadays with the 

 coniferous tree patriotically named Wellingtonia gigantea, 

 the Mammoth Tree of California. Its botanical name is 

 Sequoia. Two species of Sequoia are found in the Rockies 

 the large, S. gigantea, which is nearly extinct in its 

 native habitats, and the Californian redwood, C. semper- 

 virens. Besides this, a fossil species is found in Japan, 

 another in the coal beds of Spitzbergen, and another in 

 the Miocene rocks of Switzerland. This distribution, 

 representing probably an older type than Coriaria, is not 

 very dissimilar, and the usually received geological explan- 

 ation is that the genus was driven south by former exten- 

 sions of Arctic ice, and that it followed the three lines of 

 migration indicated. 



There is another feature about Coriaria which shows 

 the antiquity of the form, and it is that it has no living 

 allies. Botanists don't know where to place it, or with 

 what other groups of plants it should be classified. 



The flowers of tutu are worth looking at just now. 

 They are quite out of the ordinary in their development. 

 When they first open they often appear to be rusty or 

 brownish red, this tint being due to the colour of the 

 backs of the undeveloped anthers. They have each 

 five small green sepals, between which appear the points 

 of five smaller and paler petals, then ten unripe anthers, 

 and in the centre five or more red styles, which are 

 stigmatiferous all over that is, covered with little sticky 

 protuberances, so that pollen grains will adhere to them. 

 These styles are the first and most conspicuous part of 

 the flower to mature, and they remain protruded for a 

 week or more, so as to catch any pollen which may be 



