163 



sepai'ate typical collections of drug-yielding plants, gi-asses and other agricul- 

 tural plants, and otliers useful in tlie arts and manufactures, which, in addition 

 to their phytological interest, would prove of the greatest value to the com- 

 munity as means of education and information. 



Akt. XXVIII. — Notes on Certain New Zealand Plants not included in the 

 ^^ Handbook of the New Zealand Flora." By T. Kirk. 



[Bead before the Auckland Institute, SejJtember 12, 1870.] 



The object of this paper is simply to attract the attention of New Zealand 

 botanists to the plants described therein, as most of them may be expected to 

 occur in other parts of the colony, and it is desirable that their distribution 

 should be clearly ascertained. 



Hymenanthera latifolia, Endl., 

 var, Tasmanica. 



A dwarf bush or sti*aggling shrub, 5 to 25 feet high. Leaves usually close 

 set, obovate, narrowed into rather stout petioles, 2-3 inches long, distantly 

 crenate, or serrate, finely reticulate on both surfaces ; flowei-s in axillary 

 fascicles, peduncles Y~i" l^^S; with two minute opposite bracts about the 

 middle, erect or decurved ; calyx lobes obtuse, petals more than twice as long 

 as the sepals, the obtuse tips spreading, connective of the anther, with a 

 fringed terminal membrane, involute on the edge, the dorsal scale linear, acute 

 as long as the cells ; fruit nearly globose, tipped with the remains of the style, 

 purplish. 



Var. Chathamica appears to differ from our plant only in the leaves being 

 much narrowed at the base and more deeply serrated, and in the larger fruit. 



In littoral situations. Tapotopoto Bay, T. K., Mount Camel, Mr. Buchanan, 

 Taranga Island, T. K., Great Barrier Island, Flat Island, and Little Barrier 

 Island, T. K. 



This plant is abundant on the Little Barrier, where it attains the height of 

 25 feet, as an irregularly branched shrub. Mr. Buchanan showed me speci- 

 mens of a small-leaved spinous form of this genus, collected in Wellington 

 Harbour, which is probably referable to 11. crassifolia. 



Hibiscus diver sifolius, Jacq. 

 H. Beckleri, F. Mxiell. H. Taylori, Buchanan. 



A stout much-branched herb, 3-5 feet high, branches woody at the base ; 

 branches, petioles, and rarely the j)rincipal ribs of the leaf clothed with small 

 prickles mixed with setse. Leaves alternate, on stout petioles, petiole 

 2"-3''' long, lamina 2"-4" cordate, or rounded cordaie, obscurely 3-5-lobed, 

 doubly serrate, hispid. Flowers in terminal elongated racemes, solitary or in 



