288 Transactions. — Botany. 



The above three plants are closely related, Celmisia walkeri, Kirk, and 

 the present described plant, being probably only varieties of Celmisia dis- 

 color, Hook. fil. 



The figure on plate xv. is drawn of the natural size. 



Locality. — Collingwood. 



Art. XXXIV. — Notes on Loranthus fieldii, Buchanan. By H. C. Field. 

 Communicated by the President. 

 [Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 6th August, 1884.] 

 I was greatly surprised on looking over the last volume of Transac- 

 tions* to find that a Loranthus of which I sent a spray to Mr. 

 Buchanan in February was new to science. It is so abundant in the 

 region where it grows, and that region has been so constantly tra- 

 versed by Europeans — several tracks from Wanganui to Taupo passing 

 through it — that I never dreamed that the plant could have escaped obser- 

 vation. Those ardent botanists, Dr. Curl and the late Bev. B. Taylor, both 

 visited the locality to my knowledge. The latter indeed did so several times, 

 and, as he spent a Christmas at Taupo, he must apparently have traversed 

 the forest where the plant grows just when it was in blossom. 



I first saw it in December, 1870, and have had so many opportunities 

 of observing it since that date that I can describe it fully. It grows on the 

 red birch trees, but only on the upper branches of large trees, where the 

 bark is smooth and firmly attached to the wood. It is never seen on the . 

 trunk or large branches, which have their bark more or less rough and 

 detaching in large flakes. I have never even seen it on young trees, though 

 these have smooth firmly-clinging bark. I think it only grows on the red 

 birch, as I have not observed it on the black. The level forests to the south 

 and west of Buapehu consist almost exclusively of red birch, the black being 

 found growing separately, in detached patches of bush, on the eastern side 

 of the mountain, and thence to the Buahine. 



The Loranthus forms large bushes in the tops of the trees, and the 

 blossoms are so abundant as almost to hide the foliage, so that each bush, 

 when in flower, looks like a flame. I believe that the largest bushes are 

 quite 10 feet in diameter, and those of 6 feet are common. I should say 

 that fully ten per cent, of the large trees have one or more plants of 

 Loranthus growing on them, and as the blossoms fall the whole ground is 

 sprinkled with the petals. The root of the plant is hard and woody, and of 



* "Trans. N.Z. Inst.," xvi., p. 397. 



