1(54 PLANTS OP NEW ZEALAND 



species in the lower orders of insects, to enable one to speak 

 definitely about thena and their relationships to flowers. 



Uiiise.niaJ floivei'^. 



Perhaps in no other part of the world is there such a large 

 })ercentage of unisexual flowers to be found, as in New 

 Zealand. Genera which are hermaphrodite elsewhere, are 

 often unisexual here. Out of 433 species examined Mr. G. 

 M. Thomson found 46 per cent. — a remarkably high 

 proportion — more or less unisexual." Of the remaining 54 

 })er cent., probably only a few are self-pollinated, although the 

 flowers are hermaphrodite. There is reason to believe that in 

 some few cases {e.g., the willow and the oak), the unisexual 

 conditi(.)n is the prnmtive one ; but, in many of the New 

 Zealand plants, the presence of rudimentary organs, and the 

 hermaphroditism of closely allied forms elsewhere, prove that 

 suppression has taken place, and that we have here to do with 

 a secondary and not ;i primitive condition. 



Clematis indivisa (The Entire-leaved Clematis.) 



This is one of tlic best-known of the bush i"lowers. The leaves are thicl\ 

 and glossy, and the tiowers have no petals, the sepals acting both as protective 

 and attractive organs. Both islands. Fl. Sept. -Oct. Maori naiTie Pua-ioanmiga, 

 l-'ihi(irero. 



Plants of C. i)idioisa, with their festoons of starry white 

 tiowers, lo(.>ped from tree to tree, light up with delicate beauty 

 the edges of the dark bush in the early spring. It is not to be 

 wondered at that the northern Maoris gave to this species the 

 name of Pua-wananga, i.e., the sacred or sanctified flower. Its. 

 feathery wreaths of seed are almost as beautiful as the flowers,, 

 each seed in the cluster bearing a long silky, silvery plume,, 

 which enaljles the wind to carry it to a distance. Pairs of 

 rudimentary leaves are found beneath each flower-stalk, and 

 these are believed to remain undeveloped, so that the flower- 



'TraiiB. XIII., 11. HH. 



