382 Transactions. — Botany. 



this species is common " at high altitudes on the west coast, but rare on the 

 east coast of Otago," and that " it grows to a height of from fifty to sixty 

 feet, with a straight clear trunk two to three feet in diameter for two- 

 thirds of the distance." He adds, " A few trees are to he met with in the 

 vicinity of Dunedin," etc. Unless Mr. Blair has been led astray by the 

 native name tanekaha being misapplied to P. aljnna, it is dif&cult to 

 account for this error, as the present species does not occur in Otago, and 

 P. alpina, although plentifu.1 in the district mentioned by him, is usually 

 little more than a bushy shrub, and never attains dimensions at all 

 approaching those of P. trichomanoides. 



Pliyllocladus alpina. 



Hook, f., Fl. N.Z., I., p. 235, t. 53— Handbook, p. 260 ; Carr., Conif., p. 501 ; Gord., 

 Pin., p. 139; Henk. and Hochst., Nadelholz, p. 373. 



P. trichomanoides, Don, var. alpina ; Pari, in DC. Prodromus, XVI., pi. II., p. 499. 

 A monoecious shrub or small tree, 5-20 feet high ; branches numerous, 

 short, stout; cladodia crowded glaucous, very coriaceous, varying greatly 

 in size — half an inch to an inch in length, — cuneate, or linear rhomboid, 

 or linear oblong, almost entire or variously lobed or toothed, margin 

 erose. Fl. : male — in terminal fasciculi of 3-5 small, shortly peduncled 

 catkins ; female — on the margins of reduced cladodia or at the base of 

 others ; ovules two to four ; cup fleshy, and largely compressed. 



Hab. North Island : Euahine Mountains — Colenso ; Tongaru'O — Bidwill. 



South Island : Common on the mountains ; sea level near Hokitika, 

 etc., — r.A^ Ascends to 5,000 feet near Nelson (according to Bidwill.) 



The settlers in the South Island term this plant indifferently tanekaha 

 and toa-toa. 



Easily distinguished by its bushy habit, its crowded simple cladodia 

 and 3-4-seeded fruit ; the nuts are inverted, with a membranous arillode 

 which is developed considerably above the margin of the fleshy cup. 



The trunks of this species are used for levers by bushmen on the West 

 Coast, but are rarely of sufficient dimensions to be valued for other purposes, 

 except perhaps as fencing rails, for which then- strength and durability 

 would be well adapted. In the Handbook of the N.Z. Flora the trunk is 

 said to be "sometimes two feet in diameter." I do not remember to have 

 seen a specimen more than one-third of that size, and Mr. Buchanan informs 

 me that his experience is the same. 



The young state of this plant closely resembles that of P. glauca, but 

 the first formed cladodia are shorter, broader, and more coriaceous in all 

 stages ; it is easily distinguished from that species and from P. tricho- 

 manoides, but I have no doubt that it will ultimately prove identical with the 

 Tasmanian P. rhomhoidalis, Kicli., (P. aspleniifolia, Lab.), for although 



