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 phsenogamic 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 IsTgongotaha 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 dealhata, 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. 



Akt. XLY. — Notice of a New Species of Senecio, (S. hectori). 

 By John Buchanan, of the Geological Survey of New Zealand. 



[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 2%th August, 1872.] 



A BRANCHED woody shrub-tree, 6 to 12 feet high ; stem 4 to 6 inches diameter; 

 branches robust, erect. 



Leaves sessile, 12 to 18 inches long, ovate-acuminate or ovate-lanceolate, 

 tapering to both ends, -^ 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. 



