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 cases of plants from the Auckland Islands for the 

 Colonial Botanic Gardens. As my case was by some mistake removed to 

 tbe 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 Stilbocaipa, 

 the upper surface usually glabrous, the lower clothed with soft white hairs 

 and the terete petiole. In Stilbocaipa 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 Stilbocarpta 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 tbe 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 lyallvi.j 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 will be shown presently, both these state- 

 ments are erroneous. 



Becently 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, 387. 

 f " Trans. N.Z. Inst.," xiii., p, 336. 



