. 
348 Transactions.— Botany. 
dissection of the branches, but as the destruction of the specimen, which is 
probably unique, would have been involved the idea was not entertained. 
The whole process is strictly analogous to that which takes place under 
similar circumstances in phenogamic plants, although the formation of lateral 
crowns in plants which do not produce buds cannot be satisfactorily explained 
at present. 
A similar case is recorded as having occurred in a Javanese Alsophila, but 
I am not aware of any other instance having attracted notice. 
Branched tree-ferns are so extremely rare that they usually attract the 
attention of settlers in the districts in which they occur, but on the range of 
hills of which Ngongotaha forms the extremity, I found three specimens of 
Dicksonia squarrosa, Swartz, each with a single branch, in symmetrical and 
healthy condition. At Great Omaha I discovered a single branched specimen 
of Cyathea dealbata, Swartz, the branch about six feet in length ; another 
specimen occurs in the Hunua, and a third is said to grow on the Great 
Barrier Island. Colenso describes a ` remarkable specimen of this species, 
three-branched at five feet from the ground, each branch being four feet in 
length, growing at Owae. 
I am not aware that any branched specimens of C. medullaris have been 
observed, but in the parish of Opaheki a remarkable specimen of C. cunning- 
hamii is still growing ; the main trunk is inclined to about eighteen inches 
from its base, when three erect branches are given off; the outer being 
respectively nine and ten feet long; the central one about six. All the 
branches are crowned with vigorous fronds. 
Art. XLV.—WNotice of a New Species of Senecio, (S. hectori). 
By Joun Bucnanan, of the Geological Survey of New Zealand. 
[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 28th August, 1872.] 
A BRANCHED woody shrub-tree, 6 to 12 feet high ; stem 4 to 6 inches diameter; 
branches robust, erect. : 
Leaves sessile, 12 S 18 inches long, ovate-acuminate or ovate-lanceolate, 
tapering to both ends, + iş Of leaf at base pinnatisect, dentate with bristle points, 
membranous, upper surface scabrous, under surface thinly tomentose, white ; 
veins distinct on both sides. 
Corymbs lax, large, terminal ; lower bracts foliaceous, upper numerous, 
linear, very narrow ; peduncles and pedicels very narrow, slender, glandular- 
pubescent. 
Involucre broad, campanulate, scales of one series, broadly linear, acute, 
tips brown, thick, with membranous border, glandular-pubescent. 
