428 Transactions.—Botany. 
This species, in its general appearance, shows an evident relationship 
to Celmisia traversii, but the cordate leaves which present the first depar- 
ture from the normal leaf-form of Celmisia, is thought sufficient to constitute 
a new species, 
—— 
DESCRIPTION OF PLATE XVIII. 
Plant two-thirds natural size; head past flowering. 
1. Female floret of ray. 
2. Hermaphrodite floret of disk, with achene and pappus. 
8. Pappus hair more magnified, 
Art. LXIV,—Notice of a new Species of Pomaderris (P. tainui.) 
By Dr. Hzcros. 
[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 11th January, 1879.] 
Tar tree which I have to introduce to the Society was discovered during 
my recent visit to the Mokau district, under circumstances of some interest 
beyond the mere botanical importance of a new addition to the flora of the 
country. Itis a very local plant, being confined to about an acre of ground 
on à spur of the low sandy hills that extend along the coast, between tho 
Mokau and the Mohakatina rivers. 
The peeuliar habit of the treo first attracted my attention, having 2 
resemblance to a clump of apple trees, so that at first glance I thought it 
to be an old orchard or cultivation. I afterwards was much interested in 
hearing from the natives that a peculiar tree was growing on the spot where 
their ancestors first camped when they abandoned the Tainui canoe, in 
which they came from Hawaiki, and that this tree had sprung from the 
rollers or skids and the green boughs that were brought as flooring to the 
great canoe. On my doubting this, they offered to take me to the place, 
and if I could not recognise the tree as being found elsewhere in New 
Zealand, they would consider it as proof that the tradition was correct. 
To my surprise they took me to the clump of trees I had previously 
observed, and as it is certainly quite distinct from any plant hitherto 
described from New Zealand, the tradition receives a certain amount of 
confirmation ; and I need hardly point out that if it were true, and we 
could hereafter determine the original habitat of this ‘tree, it might give 
us a clue to the whereabouts of the mythical Hawaiki, or the place whence 
the Maori originally migrated to New Zealand, 
