294 Transactions.— Botany. 
with other Stewart Island plants was kindly placed at my disposal by Mr. 
C. Traill, who shipped them by the Government steamer “ Stella,” which 
also brought several eases of plants from the Auckland Islands for the 
Colonial Botanie Gardens. As my case was by some mistake removed to 
the gardens, I allowed the plants to remain there, so that the punui was 
grown under the same conditions as the Stilbocarpa, all the plants at first 
being planted in the shade-house. 
While closely agreeing in the shape of the leaf, toothing, venation, etc., 
the two plants exhibited marked differences in minor characters—the texture | 
of the leaf, amount of hairiness, and the colour and size of the hairs: the 
leaves of the punui being more membranous than those of the Stilbocarpa, 
the upper surface usually glabrous, the lower clothed with soft white hairs 
and the terete petiole. In Stilbocarpa both surfaces were clothed with 
fulvous bristly hairs, longer and stouter than those of the punui, the petiole 
was slightly compressed, and in some cases faintly grooved on the upper 
surface. In both plants the petiole was pilose. 
Two specimens of Stilbocarpa gradually developed new leaves in which 
the texture was less coriaceous, and the hairs reduced in number, shorter, 
and less bristly. These were exactly the results which I had observed in a 
greater degree with plants cultivated for two years in my own garden, so 
that the theory which attributed the trivial differences between the vegeta- 
tive organs of the two plants to the different climatal conditions under which 
they grew, seemed to receive all the confirmation needed to establish their 
identity. Had good specimens of the flowers and fruit been available for 
examination, the opinion expressed by me* would have been different. 
Business, however, took me from Wellington before the punui had fairly 
developed flowers, and the single imperfect specimen that I was able to 
secure exhibited no characters calculated to alter my opinion. 
In 1880 Mr. J. B. Armstrong gave an imperfect description of the punui 
under the name of Stilbocarpa lyallii.} He states, ‘‘ unfortunately I have not 
been able to obtain flowers or fruit, but there is no doubt as to the genus,” 
and describes the leaves as being ** from 4 to 8 inches across or more, with 
a closed—not open—sinus.” As Cn be shown presently, both these state- 
ments are erroneous. 
Recently I have had the pleasure of examining the punui in its native 
island, and have received fully ripe fruit from Mr. C. Traill, the result 
being that not only must my old opinion as to its identity with Stilbocarpa 
polaris be abandoned, but that it must be removed to another genus. 
* ** Trans, N.Z. Inst.," vol. xiv., p. 887. 
t a Trans, N.Z. Inst.," xii, p: 336. 
