360 Transactions.— Botany. 
has been on an average six-fold in three years. I have counted forty-four 
fans on one that has been seven or eight years planted, and over 200 are 
often found on well grown bushes in suitable localities. The fan that has 
flowered, as already stated, invariably dies down the following year, but I 
have never yet seen an uninjured one which has shown any signs of decay 
from old age before flowering. 
I do not profess to have given you in these remarks very much that is 
new, but I thought that you would not object to a résumé of what has been 
ascertained on this subject, and I will finish my paper with the following 
general conclusions :— 
That there is an annual growth of five or six leaves on each fan of all 
Phormium bushes growing in favourable positions, and that each leaf is 
mature and fully developed in six months from its first appearance. 
That leaves more than thirteen or fourteen months old are generally so 
decayed as to be unfit for manufacture. 
That the practice of mowing off all the leaves of each fan must injure, and 
will gradually destroy the whole plant. 
That the growth of transplanted sets and of seedlings of the Phormium is 
so tedious, and the expense of planting so great, that the cultivation cannot 
be carried out with advantage so long as the fibre is prepared only for roping 
purposes. 
That as manufacturers must therefore depend on the existing Phormium 
fields for the supply of the raw material it is to their interest to use every 
means in their power to preserve them from injury. 
Art. XLIX.—Wotes on Plants collected near Invercargill. By J. S. WEBB. 
[Read before the Otago Institute, 29th October, 1872. ] 
Havine promised Mr. Kirk that when time permitted I would send him a 
contribution to his herbarium from this province, I availed myself of a few 
unoccupied hours, during a visit to Invercargill in January of last year, to 
attempt a fulfilment of the promise. As the plants were for comparison with 
those of other localities, I concluded that the results of a searching examination 
of a narrow area would be more useful than desultory gatherings. I therefore 
collected every plant I could secure from about a square mile of tussock 
ground, between the Puni creek and the Main East road, about a mile out of 
the town. The vegetation proved to be very poor, and what struck me as very 
remarkable included very few introduced plants, and those chiefly of three or 
four species. Even the universal white clover had not there made headway 
