Note on Donatia novae-zelandiae, Hook. f. 
BY 
BERTHA CHANDLER, M.A., B.Sc, 
With Plate LVIII. 
DONATIA NOVAE-ZELANDIAE, Hook. f., is a little cushion plant 
of moss-like habit, growing on the heights of New Zealand and 
Tasmania. With Donatia fasicularis, Forst., found in antarctic 
America, it forms an isolated genus Donatia, the systematic 
position of which has been much debated. Hooker,* who first 
described it, referred the genus to Saxifrageae. At the same time 
he pointed out that the insertion of the stamens within an 
epigynous disk, the extrorse anthers, and the pendulous placenta- 
tion were characters which pointed to an affinity with Stylidieae. 
Subsequently Von Mueller ¢ definitely included the genus in the 
Stylidieae. Engler,t however, retained it in Saxifragaceae as 
a special tribe, the Donatieae, of his larger group the Saxifrag- 
oideae, and Schoenland § also definitely excluded the genus from 
Stylidiaceae. 
More recently Mildbraed,|| following the lead of Von Mueller, 
has taken Donatia to be a constituent subfamily, Donatioideae, 
of the Stylidiaceae, which otherwise includes the subfamily 
Stylidioideae only. We may admit with Mildbraed that the 
position of the Stylidiaceae amongst the Campanulateae is assured, 
and also that the relationship with the Campanulaceae themselves 
is perhaps not so close as has been urged. Whether, however, 
there is ground for saying, as he does, that the Stylidiaceae, as he 
constitutes it, is to be regarded as a small independent branch of 
the Campanulateae which has taken origin in the antarctic, is a 
matter for further consideration. Is his family of the Stylidiaceae 
really a natural one? The Stylidioideae with sympetalous 
flowers and a gynostemium, and the Donatioideae with a chori- 
* Fl. Nov. Zel., eee 
+ Nuov. Giorn. Bot. Ital., xi, July 18 
: eoeret in Engler and Prantl, Natiirliche Pflanzen-Familien, iti, 2a, p. 67. 
oenland, Candollaceae in Engler and Prantl, Pflanzenfam. tiv, 5, 
oF Milabraed, Stylidiaceae in Engler’s Pflanzenreich iv, p. 278. 
[Notes R,.B.G., Edin., No, XXII, November rgr1.] 
