242 ' Transobctions. — Botany. 



in one row, hairs thickened at the tips. Achene ribbed, compressed, 

 pubescent. 



Collected by Mr. Mitchell, surveyor, October, 1872, on the Tararua 

 Mountains, Wellington. 



This plant is allied in flower and fruit to Olearia lacunosa, differing 

 entirely, however, in the flat, thin, broad leaves, without lacuna, smaller 

 sparse-flowered, axillary panicles, and absence of reddish tomentum. 



Another shrub was also collected in the same locality, but without flowers, 

 having leaves 6-8 inches long and only \ inch broad ; deeply pitted at the 

 prominent right-angled veinlets, which, if not a young plant of Olearia 

 lacunosa, may prove to be another new species of Olearia. 



Veronica arhorea, n. s. 

 A small tree 10-25 feet high, trunk 3 feet diameter. Leaves erect or 

 reflected, 1-1 1^ inches long, linear lanceolate, "acute, ^ inch broad, arranged in 

 fascicles at the ends of the ultimate twigs. Racemes seldom longer than the 

 leaves, close, small flowered, pubescent, pedicels short, sejDals ovate, obtuse, 

 ciliate, corolla |- inch diameter. Capsule ^ inch long, twice as long as the 

 calyx, swollen. This relic of the ancient bush may still be found in the 

 neighbourhood of "Wellington, in the rough bush country near Makara and 

 Terawiti. Its form, when young, is peculiarly striking, being then perfectly 

 dome-shaped, and elevated on a long, narrow stem, 10-12 feet high. 



This is probably the plant alluded to in the Handbook as a small-leaved 

 form of Veronica parviflora ;* the smallest-leaved forms of the latter, however, 

 can always be distinguished, and are never found except as straggling shrubs, 

 a few feet high in open country. The racemes, also, are generally twice as 

 long as the leaves. 



Arundo fulvida, n. s. 



Plant forming tussocks of close-growing leaves and culms. Leaves 

 coriaceous, 5-6 feet long, narrow, with long, attenuate curving points, entire, 

 and smooth, without cutting edges, upper surface covered more or less with 

 long, silky hairs. Ciilms few, 4-6 feet long, with erect, bi'oad, compacted, 

 pale fulvous panicles, 12-18 inches long. Spikelets 1-2, flowered, closely 

 arranged on capillary pedicels, empty glumes J inch long, nearly equal; 

 flowering glumes two-thirds as long, not bifid at the points, but terminated by 

 a slightly twisted not included awn. 



The Arundo conspicua, of the New Zealand Flora and Handbook, has 

 been at various times differently named by different botanists, and Baron von 



* See Trans. KZ. Inst,, Vol. I., Art. X., p. 148, "On the Botany of the Great 

 Barrier Island," by Mr. Kirk, where a similar plant is described, but not named. It 

 has been named at this time for the convenience of many persons who cultivate the 

 species in their gardens, and who repudiate its being V. parviflora. 



