410 SUBANTAECTIC ISLANDS OF NEW ZEALAND. [Systematic Botany. 



more robust and less hispid, and in wanting the curious arcuate stolons. The leaves 

 are larger and have the teeth strongly mucronate, and the flowers are smaller, with 

 yellowish petals. I suspect that it will constitute a separate species, but at present 

 I have not the material from which to form a satisfactory diagnosis. 



The late Mr. Kirk removed Stilbocarpa Lyallii to Aralia, mainly on account of 

 the two -celled ovary and fruit not hollowed at the apex. But in other characters 

 it approaches very closely to Stilbocarpa folaris, and I now think that Harms was 

 right (" Natiirlichen Pflanzenfamihen," teil iii, abt. 7, 57) in extending the characters 

 of Stilbocarpa so as to receive both plants. From the point of view of the plant- 

 geography of the southern portions of New Zealand, it is a decided gain to be able 

 to treat the two species as constituting a single endemic genus. 



Panax simplex, Forst. 



Panax simplex, Forst., Prodr., n. 399 (1786) ; Hook, f., Fl. Antarct., i, 

 18, t. 12 (1844). Nothopanax simplex, Seem, in Journ. Bot., iv, 296 

 (1866). 



Auckland Islands : Abundant in woods, from sea-level to an altitude of about 

 500 ft. ; Hooker and all subsequent botanists. (New Zealand, in forests from 

 Cape Colville southwards.) 



Auckland Island specimens agree fairly well with New Zealand examples of this 

 well-known plant. 



RUBIACEAE. 



Coprosma parviflora, Hook. f. 



Coprosma myrtillifolia, Hook, f., Fl. Antarct., i, 21 (1844). C. parviflora, 

 Hook, f., FI.'Nov. Zel., i, 107 (1853) ; Handb. N.Z. Fl., 116 (1864). 



Auckland and Campbell Islands : Not uncommon, especially in ravines on the 

 face of the hills ; Hooker, Kirk ! Cockayne ! Aston ! Laing ! (New Zealand, from 

 the North Cape to Stewart Island.) 



There are two states of this represented in the collections submitted to me. 

 The first has comparatively large oblong-obovate leaves ■§-- 1 in. long, and the young 

 shoots are clothed with whitish shaggy pubescence. The other has smaller and 

 narrower linear or lanceolate more acute leaves, and the twigs are not nearly so 

 pubescent. Specimens of the first -mentioned form, collected by Mr. Aston, show 

 a few imperfect flowers, which in the main agree with those of C. parviflora ; but 

 neither of the two exactly matches any of the New Zealand forms of C. parviflora, 

 although the differences are not of a pronounced character. At the same time, it 

 must be admitted that C. parviflora, as at present defined, is a somewhat elastic 

 species, including several plants which further research may prove to be worthy of 

 specific rank. For instance, the northern variety, abundant in the Bay of Islands 

 and Mangonui Counties, and remarkable for its flat spreading branches, has a very 

 different aspect to the form so common in the mountain districts of New Zealand. 

 Should the species be divided in the future, the name parviflora should be retained for 

 the northern plant, to which it was first applied, and Hooker's original name of 

 myrtillifolia, as the oldest in date, be kept for the Auckland Island plant and the 

 allied forms found in the mountains of the South Island. 



