﻿264 Transactions.-^^ Botany. 



linear, lanceolate acuminate, ^ inch wide, crowded. Flowers terminal, 

 solitary or clustered ; capsule ovoid-acuminate ; tips of valves recurved. 

 Var. Gilliesianum — very slender, leaves crowded, linear-lanceolate, acute, 

 capsule conical, tips of valves straight. P. Gilliesianum, Kirk, Trans. 

 KZ. Inst., Vol. I., p. 143. 



North Island, rare, Mongonui, Bay of Islands, and Whangaroa. 



Flowers in April. 



In size and habit there is a wide difference between the siib-species, 

 but the fruit is closely alike in both. I have seen no specimens of 

 P. reflexum with axillary flowers. 



7. P. cornifolium, A. Cunn. Usually epiphytic, rarely terrestrial; branches 



often scarred with the marks of fallen leaves. 

 North Island, Spirits Bay to Cook Straits. 

 Flowers from August to November. 



8. P. Xirkii, Hook, f., Trans. N.Z. Inst., Yol. II., p. 92. A laxly branched 



shrub, 3 to 15 feet high ; branchlets stout, ascending ; bark reddish purple ; 

 leaves erect, alternate, crowded or whorled, glabrous, linear-obovate, acute 

 or obtuse, 2-5 inches long, narrowed into rather broad piirple petioles, 

 excessively coriaceous, pale green above, lighter below, midrib' stout, 

 prominent and curiously flattened beneath. Flowers terminal in 3-7 

 flowered umbels ; peduncles slightly decurved ; sepals broadly lanceolate, 

 with membranous margin ; petals ligulate, recurved, bright yellow ; fila- 

 ments short ; ovary with a few long hairs, and nari'owed into the short 

 style ; stigma 2-lobed ; capsules erect, clustered, glabrous, elliptic, 1 J inches 

 long, obtuse, 2-3-valved, remarkably compressed. 



North Island, rocky woods, Whangarei, J. Buchanan ; Great Barrier 

 Island and Omaha, TIC. ; Titirangi, T. F. Gheeseman ; Cape Colville 

 and Thames, TK. Altitudinal range 1,000 to 2,300 feet. 



Flowers in December. Often epiphytic. 



9. P. umbellatum, Banks and Sol. Var. cordatum. Leaves linear spathulate, 



narrowed into the petioles, capsules cordate, valves not lobed. 



North Island ; always near the sea, from the North Cape to Poverty 

 Bay. Yar. cordatum, Great Barrier Island. 



Flowers in October. 



Comparatively rare on the west coast. This species and P. crassifolium 

 have the same range, and evince the same preference for a littoral 

 habitat. Probably both will be found to extend to the East Cape or still 

 further south. 



10. P. virgatum, n. s. A slender twiggy tree, 20-25 feet high ; young shoots, 

 leaves, and pedicels clothed with pale ferruginous pubescence ; leaves 

 linear-lanceolate or ovate, or obovate, entire or variously lobed and 



