242 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 3-4 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 3-4 rather long cylindrical white obtuse fimbriae 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. 



Hah. In shady forests near Norsewood, County of Waipawa ; 1884 : 

 W.C. 



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 com- 

 mon in the woods at the north (Bay of Islands, etc.) ; 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 Buamahanga : 



(2) from the distinctness of this species : (3) 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. 



Order XXXIX. COMPOSITE. 

 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, 

 sulcated, villous with brown and grey pubescence. Leaves 1-2^ inches 

 long, f-f 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. T>. Hooker, in the 

 " Handbook N.Z. Flora," has placed it under A. quercifolia. 



