249 Transactions, — Botany. 
near top, rarely axillary, drooping; peduncle stout, glabrous, spotted and 
striped with red (also the calyx and corolla without), bearing two small 
alternate bracts, and 8-4 red bracts together at the base with red spread- 
ing hairs within; calyx glabrous, 5-lobed, lobes deltoid acute; corolla 
4-5 lines long, 5-lobed, lobes thickish, revolute, of a light straw or pale 
primrose colour, velvety, not veined, sides ruguloso-fimbriate to base, each 
lobe bearing 83-4 rather long cylindrical white obtuse fimbrie at tip ; anthers 
large, orbicular, 2-lobed, lobes turgid, shorter than corolla-tube, and longer 
than the style; stigma large, globose. Berry large, 8-9 lines long, ellipsoid, 
thickest at apex, succulent, smooth, shining, bright red, containing 9 (or 
more) dark brown seeds, 2 lines long, oblong, slightly curved and obtusely 
angled, finely striate, shining. 
Hab. In shady forests near Norsewood, Suny of Waipawa; 1884: 
mc 
Obs. I. The unexpected discovery of this little shrub pleased me much: 
(1) from the genus being very scarce in this part of the island, though eom- 
mon in the woods at the north (Bay of Islands, ete.) ; I had only once 
before (in 1848) fallen in with a species* so far south, and then only in one 
spot, in the dense forest between the rivers Manawatu and Ruamahanga : 
(2) from the distinetness of this species: (8) from the small size of the 
shrub—a little erect hard-wooded tree in miniature; and (4) from its very 
large and bright red fruit (which indeed was the cause of my detecting it, 
hidden among the dense undergrowth of ferns and small herbaceous 
plants); it bears the largest berry of the known species of the genus. 
Obs. II. I brought away living four shrubs, each 5-6 inches high ; and 
planted them here at Napier in a large flowerpot. These are all healthy, 
and are now flowering (September), although they have not yet fully evolved 
a leaf; some of the flowers are about 1-2 inches from the base, and all from 
old wood. From its delicious odour (common to the genus) this species 
being so small will make a suitable pot plant. 
Orper XXXIX. COMPOSITA. 
Genus 1. Olearia, Mcench. 
1. Olearia multibracteolata, sp. nov. 
A shrub about 6—7 feet high of dense foliage and thick compact growth ; 
“ bark on trunk rough grey and somewhat scaly, wood hard, and leaves in 
age acquiring a brown colour."  Branchlets long slender, dark brown, 
suleated, villous with brown and grey pubescence. Leaves 1-24 inches 
long, 4—23 inch wide (decreasing in size towards ends of branches), linear- 
oblong, obtuse with a tooth, alternate, distant, coriaceous, incurved, deeply 
* This, also, I had only found in fruit, in the autumn; Sir J. D. Hooker, in the 
“ Handbook N.Z. Flora," has placed it under 4. quercifolia 
