272 Transactions. — Botany. 



anthers. In this species the only contrivances for preventing self-fertihzation 

 apx^ear to be the position of the transverse anthers under the stigmatic 

 disc, their proterandry — which, however, is not very decided, and the 

 rigidity of the short, erect cokimn. They are probably, also, entomophilous 

 as in the preceding species. 



Donatia novcB-zealandicB occurs tolerably abundantly on the summit of 

 Maungatua (3000 feet), and in similar swampy country near sea-level in 

 Stewart Island. The flowers are solitary, white, and quite sessile at the 

 end of rigid branches, which are covered with very short, rigid leaves. 

 They are destitute of scent and, as far as I have observed, of honey, but 

 owing to the plants being aggregated into large tufts they are very con- 

 spicuous. The bases of the filaments and styles are connate, but the 

 anthers diverge from the stigmas and dehisce outwards. I hardly think the 

 flowers are self-fertilizable, but have not sufficiently definite information on 

 the subject. 



Nat. Ord. CAMPANULACEiE. 



Two species of Wahlenbergia are abimdant in this part of New Zealand, 

 W. gracilis being found in dry spots at all elevations from the sea-level to 

 3000 feet (Maungatua), while W. saxicola is more commonly a hill-growing 

 species. I have, however, found it at sea-level in some parts of Otago and 

 in Stewart Island. The former is a branched plant, sometimes two feet high, 

 and producing a solitary flower at the end of each branch. These are small 

 but brightly coloured, white, lilac, or blue. W. saxicola is a much smaller 

 plant, producing oi:ie much-larger bell, on a slender, erect peduncle, seldom 

 more than six inches high, and conspicuous from its pure white or pale 

 blue colour. Both species are hermaphrodite in structure, but dioecious in 

 function, as they are very distinctly proterandrous. The anthers dehisce 

 before the flowers open, and discharge all then* pollen on to the outside of 

 the style, which is furnished with hairs to which the grains adhere. The 

 style, which bears two stigmatic branches at its upper part, lengthens 

 upwards, carrying the pollen with it, in which state it is accessible to any 

 insect visiting the flower. It cannot, however, get on the stigma, for the 

 two faces of the style are in close contact. These ultimately open, display- 

 ing two convex siu'faces thickly clothed with glandular papillae, and finally 

 curving back from one another stand right in the path of any insect entering 

 the flower. The ovary is covered by the expanded and fringed bases of the 

 filaments, and between these may be seen small beads of honey. Both 

 species are evidently quite dependent on insect-aid for their fertilization. 

 Nat. Ord. Lobeliace^e. 



The only plant belonging to this order which I have been able to 

 examine is Pratia angulata. It is almost universally admitted among 



