UMBELLIFEILE 417 



escape from cultivation, but not common." I think where it does 

 occur in the wild state it is fairly abundant. It is found in all cultivated 

 districts of New Zealand. (Fl., Jan. to March.) 



In Europe the flowers are visited by Apis mettifica, Bombus ter- 

 restris, B. hortorum, Eristalis tenax, Calliphora erythrocephala, C. vomi- 

 toria and Lucilia ccesar. 



Cockayne writes : 



The parsnip, probably the celebrated " student," which is supposed by 

 writers on evolution to be a fixed race (Romanes writes, "that is to say, 

 it has come true to seed for the last forty years"), came up year by year 

 in a neglected part of my garden, but in a much deteriorated form. 



Daucus Car ota, Linn. Carrot 



Carrots were first introduced by Cook in 1773, in Queen Charlotte 

 Sound. The plant apparently disappeared there, for Bellingshausen 

 gave the natives of Motuara more seeds of it in 1820. But in 1839, 

 E. Jerningham Wakefield found carrots growing wild in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Cook's old gardens at the entrance of Queen Charlotte 

 Sound. They were probably introduced about the same time at the 

 Bay of Islands by the missionaries, for they were found in 1828 in 

 native cultivations by the same narrator as is mentioned in the pre- 

 ceding note. Wohlers mentions the plant as growing wild near Lake 

 Ellesmere in 1844 on the site of former Maori cultivations. W. W. 

 Smith reported it as covering acres of waste land about Ashburton 

 in 1903. As Cheeseman stated in 1906, it is not uncommon in 

 fields and roadsides, but it has not spread to any great extent, and is 

 never far from cultivated land. It is, however, very abundant in parts 

 of South Taranaki. (Fl., Dec. to March.) 



Caucalis nodosa, Scop. Hedge-parsley 



First recorded by T. Kirk in introduced plants of Great Barrier 

 Island in 1867, as Torilis nodosa, and from other parts of the Auckland 

 Province in 1870. I found it common at Moeraki in 1899. It occurs 

 in many parts of both islands. (Fl., Sept. to Nov.) 



ARALIACE.E 

 Hedera Helix, Linn. Ivy 



I have no record of the first introduction into New Zealand, but 

 it is first mentioned by Cheeseman in 1882 as spreading in plantations 

 and gardens, but hardly considered by him as naturalised. It flowers 

 very freely in the south in May, June and July, rather later than 

 the corresponding flowering season in Britain, which is Oct. to Nov. 



In Europe the flowers are visited by Eristalis tenax, Calliphora 

 erythrocephala and C. vomitoria. 



T. N. z. 27 



