492 Transactions.— Botany. 
Art. LIX.— Notes on Panax lineare, Hook., f. By T. Kırg, F.L.S. 
[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 29th July, 1876.) 
Durme a recent botanical excursion in the Waimakiriri District, Mr. J. D. 
Enys and myself were greatly interested in collecting, at altitudes below 
4,000 feet, a number of plants, hitherto supposed to be restricted to the 
extreme south-western portion of the Colony, or to the Auckland Islands :— 
Donatia nove zealandie, Drosera stenopetala, Gaimardia celiata, G. setacea, 
Lyperanthus antarcticus, Panax lineare, etc. 
Panax lineare was observed in several localities, and a good series of 
specimens collected, elucidating the changes it undergoes before it reaches 
maturity. The interest attached to this species, from its remarkable charac- 
ter and great rarity, has induced me to draw up the following description, 
which supplies a few omissions in the diagnosis given in the ** Handbook to 
the New Zealand Flora," 
Panaw lineare, Hook., f. 
A small, sparingly branched, diæcious shrub, 5-8 feet high, ultimate 
branchlets very short and crowded. Leaves in the young state 6-9 inches 
long, i'—3' wide, crowded, ascending, simple, coriaceous, linear, acute, 
apiculate, gradually narrowed into a short broad petiole, midrib stout, pro- 
minent above, margins thickened, distantly serrate ; gradually passing into 
the mature leaves, which are crowded at the ends of the branchelets, inter- 
mixed with numerous hard, coriaceous, subulate scales with membranous 
margins, spreading, linear-lanceolate, acute, or obtuse, margins thickened, 
finely and distantly serrate, midrib flattened above, keeled below ; petiole 
very short and stout, not jointed. Flowers in terminal umbels, sessile or 
very shortly peduncled ; male umbels shorter than the leaves, of from 
4-6 spreading bracteolate, 5-6 flowered rays, calyx teeth minute, ovate ; 
female umbels smaller, shortly peduncled, of from 3-7 or more simple, 1-3 
flowered rays; fruit ovoid, elongated ; styles 5, connate for one-third of 
their length, the upper portion free and recurved. 
The description in the Handbook was drawn from two small specimens 
collected by Lyall in Chalky Bay in 1848 ; Hector and Buchanan collected 
it in Dusky Bay in 1863. It appears to have escaped further notice until 
observed by Mr. Enys and the writer, in January last, not far from the 
Waimakiriri Glacier, and in several spots in Bealey Gorge, altitude 2,500 
to 8,000 feet. The herbarium of the Colonial Museum contains a small 
specimen recently collected on Mount Cook by Mr. McKay, of the Geological 
Survey Department. 
In the diminished size and alteration of form which characterize the 
